


diary of a mediocre art hoe

by pinkorangeade (amazhengs)



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crack, Crossdressing, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gay Panic, Gen, High School, Humor, IF I ROAST ANY OF THE CHARACTERS ITS ALL ON GOOD FUN IM NOT TRYNA SLANDER ANY OF THEM SJDJDKSKD, M/M, Multi, Romance, School, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Soft!Soobin, Soft!Yeonjun, THIRD TIMES THE CHARM I GUESS IF YOUVE READ THIS BEFORE BUT BTS HELLO IT ME AGAIN, Teen Romance, Tsundere Yeonjun, big uwus bc yeonbin is fkn cute, dirty jokes bc i like stupid humor, enjoy laid ease uwu, hi it me again, im actually lia, same story different characters so lets see if this works out, soobin is a big nerd, theres a lot of romanized korean bc i find that shit so funny, this is crack af
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2019-12-25 17:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 73,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18266447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazhengs/pseuds/pinkorangeade
Summary: when yeonjun thinks that the best way to get a girl was to pretend to be one (even though literally no one thought this was a good idea)a crazy plan involving a skirt and wig later, "misunderstood" artist soobin was now whipped for his new muse....it was bound to get fucking complicated.





	1. uno

**Author's Note:**

> HEY EVERYONE WHO'S READ THIS BEFORE THANKS FOR READING AGAIN HAHA
> 
> WILL I ACTUALLY UPDATE THIS TIME???
> 
> lets see how school works out :^)
> 
> if u havent  
> welcome to my sick and twisted mind  
> jk i just like writing really cringe cliche shit so enjoy

A line here.

Another line there.

Some shading in this corner.

Maybe some blending here too?

The pencil tip snapped from the tension against the paper, creating a deep streak across the portrait.

Maybe this was a sign that it wasn’t going to come out too nice.

“Soobin, are you sketching again?”

The boy looked up, pushing his plastic glasses up and wiping the bit of sweat that beaded on his forehead.

“Y-Yes.”

“Put that away please.” his teacher instructed, as the rest of the class scoffed and chuckled in the background.

“You can never put away raw art..” he muttered under his breath, tearing out the ruined sketch from the book and shoving it into his leather bag (made only from cows raised on Latvian farms, fed strictly Grecian grass, of course) right as the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

He got out of there before the teacher could assign any homework.

‘Less homework, more time for art.’ he thought.

He wove his way through the hallways, trying his best not to bump into the jocks and weird emo kids that came from the opposite end of the school. But he swore for a second, he heard a quiet sob from one of the annexes. He stopped in the middle of the hallway, earning a series of curses from the students behind him. Being quite tall, they couldn’t push him, so they all settled for walking around him, but not before knocking into his with their arms.

There was a girl, but not just any girl. Wendy Son, considered one of the most attractive and richest girls in school, was in tears. Her head was down and she was grabbing the edge of her skirt as she tried to hold back her sobs.

“Yeonjun.. why are you so cold?” she choked out, before running away from the figure leaning against the wall.

‘God.. is it-‘

The figure stepped out of the shadows, and sure enough it was none other than the biggest asshole in school.

Yeonjun, the jock-but-not-a-jock that worked out six days a week, but refused to join a team despite begging from every coach from every sport. He, like Soobin, towered above most of the people in school, and he had a toned body to boot too. Which was why an average of seven girls confessed to him a week.

Despite his frequent rejections, all the girls either referred to him as “Golden Hyung”, “Hottest Guy in School”, or just short and sweet, “Daddy”, usually accompanied by various loud sounds usually heard in a bedroom.

“What are you looking at, fucking nerd?” Yeonjun briefly stopped, swinging his blazer over his shoulder and loosening his tie. “You in love with me too?”

Soobin audibly scoffed, the other brushing past him with a cocky smile plastered on his face.

“Not if you were the last person on earth.”

 

\- - -

 

“CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG-“

Yeonjun gulped down the rest of the beer, slamming the glass down onto the table with a huge clink before his opponent could even get halfway through his glass. A loud cheer thundered through the outdoor restaurant, earning the group of boys annoyed looks and muttered complaints from the other people there, including the old ladies that served the food.

“As always, our Golden Hyung takes the win!” Jihoon slapped him on the back, placing another glass in front of him.

“Jun, have another one!!” Woojin encouraged, hitting the table with his hands.

“I’ve had enough, I’ll let the ducklings have some.” Yeonjun picked up the glass and pushed it to Woojin’s lips, forcing him to chug down the drink and have some of it dribble down his chin, rousing another round of laughter from their table.

“Yeonjun, you gotta check out this girl that just made the cheer team.” Lucas slung an arm over the other’s shoulders, holding up the phone to his face. Another picture of a girl who tried way too hard to squeeze her chest together.

“What’s up with that clown makeup?” Yeonjun chuckled at her overlined eyes and alarmingly red cheeks. “I swear, all the girls these days are starting to look the same. Whether it’s their surgery or makeup, I can’t tell the difference anymore. To be honest, it’s getting kind of boring.”

“Oh yeah, I heard you rejected Wendy this morning? Are you actually crazy?! Her family literally OWNS Lotte World.”

“She’s basic.” he shrugged.

“She’s loaded.” Woojin cut in.

Yeonjun turned towards the other, raising his eyebrow.

“How would you feel if every confession you’ve gotten this month has been something like ‘Woojin sunbaenim.. I like you…. you’re so hot… I jinjja sarang you neomu neomu much, please date me~?’.” He clasped his hands under his chin and batted his eyes while he scooched up beside the man, in a comedic attempt to imitate Wendy and the numerous other girls that craved his attention.

“Eww, fuck outta here, Yeonjun.” Woojin slapped him upside the head, making the other burst into a fit of laughter. “Thank god no girls look like you.” He shivered in horror.

“ExCUSE me, I’d make a damn hot girl.” Yeonjun stuffed several pieces of ddeokbeokki into Woojin’s mouth. “You’d definitely want to tap me.”

“Yeah, when hell freezes over, Jun.” Woojin almost spit out the beer he didn’t manage to get down.

“Shit, it’s already ten..” Yeonjun checked his phone, flooded with texts from his sister. “Better get home before Lia starts complaining again and tells our parents.”

“Hey, Yeonjun.” Lucas slurred out.

“What, dude?”

“Let me know if your sister is ever up for fun with us!”

“What’s up with the hype for my sister? She’s not even that hot.” he sighed, then added. “And I don’t think she’s into a piece of trash like you anyways.”

Time and time again he would remind himself to not drink so much at once. But his reminders were always trumped by his crew’s encouragement for “Golden Hyung’s” chugging. What they didn’t know was that beer was probably the strongest alcohol he could handle before he became piss-drunk.

Which was why he was stumbling down one of the neighborhoods on the way to his house, barely managing to put on foot in front of the other.

“Fuck…. how big of a glass was that? Fuckin’ Jihoon and his stupid drinking games….” he slurred to no one in particular, grabbing onto and spinning himself around a metal pole in his way. His head was throbbing particularly hard tonight, probably because he downed that entire class in less than ten seconds. He hadn’t played a game like that in a while, and the last time this happened, he had to call Lia to drive to the place to get him. She swore she would never do that again though, so that wasn’t an option tonight. He was glad the boys didn’t pick soju- he probably would’ve had to get his stomach pumped right then and there.

“That little spot… looks comfortable…” his blurred vision may have been tricking him, but it looked like there was a nice, big mattress-looking thing on someone’s balcony. The lights were off in the house and it didn’t seem like anyone was home. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if I… just…. lay down here.. for a.. while….” he murmured, dragging himself up the steps to the house and throwing his body down on the bed.

Within a few minutes, he was ready to doze off when he swore he could hear footsteps, some voices, and….. barking..?

He cracked open his eyes to see the snout of a German shepherd, baring its teeth and only a mere inch from his face.

“FUCK!!” he sat up, his unforgiving headache still pounding, and not subsiding anytime soon thanks to the excessive barking of the mutt. “Uh… good doggy..?”

“Soju, I told you to go to slee- WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING ON SOJU’S BED?” a girl came out of the back door, pointing her finger at Yeonjun as he was pressed up against the edge of the balcony.

The dog ran back to its owner, staying in front of her in a protective stance. The girl grabbed the broom that was leaning against the door and held it out in front of her, a frown dancing on her face.

“I asked.. who are you?!”

“Um… I was just out… drinking with my friends a few blocks down and your dog’s bed looked so big and comfortable so I- ah!” he held his head in his hand, as a sharp pain raced through him.

The girl’s stance visibly became more relaxed, as she made her way over to him and poked him in the stomach with the handle of her broom.

“Yah. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.. Just….. I’m not a very good drinker.”

“Then why do you drink at all?” she demanded. “I would assume just for show, but you don’t seem as cool as you try to come off as for drinking.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll just leave you and your mutt alone then!” he tried to stand up, but his legs gave out under him, leaving him to hold onto the balcony wall for his dear life.

She rolled her eyes and put her broom arm down.

“Druggie.” she called out, watching as the man winced at her voice. “Stay here. I’ll call you a cab before you end up sleeping on some other dog’s bed.”

“Druggie?? I only drink though.....” he turned back towards the girl.

She rolled her eyes and completely ignored his protests to his new nickname. “Don’t move. I’m calling you a cab whether you like it or not.”

“Yes, ma’am.” he weakly saluted.

In a minute or so, the girl came back with a glass of water and a few doses of Advil.

“What, are you acting as my guardian angel tonight?” he asked, eying her all white-ensemble. “Aren’t you a little young to be helping ‘druggies’ on a school night?”

“Like you, druggie, I’m in high school.” she held out the glass to him, uttering a single “Drink.”

He obeyed. In a matter of minutes, his headache was subsiding, and he clearly saw the girl standing in front of him. She was only up to his neck, had a heart-shaped face, shiny black hair that framed her visage, and rosy pink cheeks he could see even under the dim lighting of her balcony.

“So, your dog’s name is Soju?” he nodded towards it. “Nice name for a nice dog.”

“Yep, she’s been through a lot with me.” she seemed to hesitate before saying, “Sorry about her, she gets really aggressive with strangers..”

Yeonjun put his hand in front of the dog’s mouth and wiggled his fingers a little, prompting Soju to lick his hand, and then proceed to rub herself against his legs.

“That’s funny, I’ve never seen her get used to a stranger this quickly.” the girl mused, tilting her head and pursing her lips.

“I could say the same for you.” Yeonjun observed. “How are you so sure that I couldn’t just snatch you up?” He raised his arms and jerked towards her as he said this, but he couldn’t get a single reaction from the girl.

“I’m not a little girl.” she scoffed. “And I don’t usually find drunk high schoolers threatening, per say.” She gave Yeonjun a smile, her eyes turning into tiny crescents. Yeonjun swore that she had the more adorable nose-scrunching face he had ever see-

-wait what?

He quickly shook his head to rid himself of the sudden thought, trying to avoid any eye contact.

She whipped her head towards the street when she heard the sound of a car horn.

“Oh, your cab is here!” she stood up, and positioned herself under Yeonjun so that she would be holding him up and supporting him in some way. He watched the smaller girl manage to hoist him up from his seat on the balcony with little to no problem, and helping him down the stairs.

He was staring at her the whole time down.

“Please take this young man to his house, he’ll tell you his address.” she rattled off to the driver as soon as she pushed Yeonjun into the backseat.

“Wait.” Yeonjun got out, sitting up in his seat and sticking his head out of the window before the girl could hop up the stairs again. “What’s your name?”

She paused for a second before giving him another one of her eye smiles.

“Ryujin!”

Her name echoed in his head even after the cab sped off.


	2. tuwu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeonjun's squad is literally just a bunch of 99 liner idol huehuehue
> 
> ANYTHING I SAW ABOUT YUNA IS ALL IN GOOD FUN I LOVE HER MY ARIEL LOOKING BB

Pale faces.

Straight-as-a-ruler eyebrows.

Offensively bright tinted lips.

Attempts at see-through bangs that end up look just like greasy strands plastered to their foreheads.

And the same. exact. uniform.

“We have truly become a homogenous world.” Soobin muttered, swinging his legs over the roof of the school. Observing each and every one of the girls coming into the school gates usually quenched his thirst for SOME type of inspiration.

But when would he ever find his sole source of inspiration?

Someone that he could tell apart from the others.

Someone that only he found charming.

Someone that could be his..

Muse.

The school bell jolted him out of his fantasy, nearly causing him to lean forward and fall to a very, very unpleasant accident (or death). He scooped up his bag and pencils, and tried bolting towards the door that led down from the roof of the school.

And then he tripped over his shoelaces and fell on his face.

 

\- - -

 

Soobin slid open the door to his classroom, peeking in and quickly shuffling to his seat. He could already feel the chuckles and stares from the kids in there, namely Yeonjun and his crew, at the giant bandaid plastered in the middle of his forehead. He had to also tie up his bangs with a rubber band to avoid keep his hair away from his injury and forgot to take it out so yes, he did look like quite a spectacle to the other students.

He quickly slipped into his seat in the back of the classroom, and prepared to continue sketching the visage of his muse again.

Their teacher hit her hand against her podium, grabbing the attention of everyone.

“We have a new student today. She’s lived in China for the past 10 years, and just came back to Korea this month.” the teacher announced, looking over to the door and yelling, “You may come in now.”

The new student stepped in, and made her way to the front of the classroom. She scrunched up her nose and gave the classroom an eye smile.

“I'm Ryujin Shin, nice to meet you all!”

Yeonjun’s head snapped up from the phone in his lap, his eyes widening and his heartbeat quickening as he recognized her face from the night before. He couldn’t believe that it was her, and he repeatedly did double takes as she walked to her seat.

The guardian angel.

“You all have fifteen minutes before class starts. Please make our new student feel welcomed.” their teacher instructed, before turning to the boy sitting at the very front of the classroom. “As our class president, Kang Taehyun will be in charge."

Immediately, not-so-quiet whispers  went around the room about the new girl. Most of them were positive, about how cute her eye smile was, although some of the girls expressed mild jealousy over her small face and flawless skin.

Ryujin, however, ignored all of these and proceeded to take her books out of her bag and place them neatly on the table, folding her hands nearly and looking straight ahead.

Yeonjun’s eyes were glued to her, and he even ignored comments from the boys around him.

“She’s cute, but like… she’s got neither of *this* or *this*..” Mark made motions around his chest and his behind.

“She’s too clean for me.” Lucas made a waving motion. “You guys know I like my girls a little dirty.”

“Probably not adventurous enough for Golden Hyung, amiright?” Woojin put his hand on Yeonjun’s shoulder, expecting some sort of response.

He received none.

“Yo. Yeonjun.” he waved his hand in front of his face, and even snapped. “Dude, you dead?”

“Huh?” Yeonjun turned to him, his eyes slightly hazy.

“Don’t tell me….” Woojin started. “You actually think she’s hot shit?”

“No!!” he snapped. “Just…. cute shit.” he added under his breath.

Some movement from Ryujin’s general direction caught his eye, and he swore, he was about to run over there when he saw her look at the boy sketching furiously next to her.

Wasn’t that the nerd he caught staring at him yesterday?

“Whoa, that’s really good…” Ryujin observed Soobin’s nimble hands fly across the paper. “Who are you drawing?”

Soobin looked up in surprise. Someone was talking to him?

“Uhh..” he opened and closed his mouth. “Sorry, are you talking to me?”

“Who else would I be talking to?” she gave him a smile, noticing his forehead. “Oh my, what happened to your forehead? Are you alright?”

“Y-Yeah… I tripped and fell… but I’m okay.” he answered cautiously, not knowing where to look.

He had no idea how to talk to people.

And here he was, talking to a girl that just came to the school today. Maybe she wasn’t aware of his status here..

“By the way, Ryujin.” she greeted. “And your name is…? I don’t just want to call you ‘Sketch Boy’ while I’m here.”

“Choi S-Soobin. Pleased to meet you, Ryujin.” he barely made eye contact, bobbing his head in some form of a greeting.

Meanwhile, the entire classroom was watching this exchange.

Including Yeonjun.

“Soobin.” Ryujin turned in her chair. “It looks like you forgot to take out the band that’s holding up your bangs..?”

He briefly touched his head, his mouth opening in realization.

“Ah. I see. Thank you for-“

“No worries, I’ll take care of it.” she stood up and gently eased the rubber band out of his hand, brushing her fingers through his bangs so they were at least a bit neater than they usually were, and so that they covered his bandaid.

Soobin felt like he was going to stop breathing.

There was a girl.

And she was touching him.

Yeonjun looked on, absolutely fuming.

 

\- - -

 

“Are you going to the market after school, Lia?”

“Yep, I’ll meet you right outside after school!” she waved to her friend, and was about to head into the girls’ bathroom.

“Lia, Lia, Lia, Lia!!”

She rolled her eyes and spun around on her heel, to see her brother, quite flustered, running towards her.

“What?”

“Did you know that there was gonna be a new girl, Shin Ryujin?” he huffed, brushing his bangs out of his face.

“Um yeah..? I used to talk to her over that language app when she was still in China.” Lia answered, side-eyeing her brother.

“…WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!”

Lia was taken aback by her brother’s reaction, covering his mouth and pushing him against the wall.

“Yeonjun, shut up, will you? And since when were you ever interested in girls like Ryujin? Isn’t she too *plain* for your tastes?”

“Nevermind that.” he waved his sister off. “What kind of guys is she into? Do you know?”

“I mean I could ask…?” she shrugged. “Yeonjun, this better not be one of your hit-and-quit-it things. She’s a nice girl, she doesn’t deserve that.”

“It’s not!!” he defended. “Well.. at least I think it’s not… She was the one that helped me get home last night.. and I feel like she’s… special.”

“Not every girl that doesn’t have unusually huge tits and some form of Botox is special, Yeonjun.”

“Lia, I’m being serious. Please?” Yeonjun clasped his hands together and squeezed his eyes shut. Note that he never acted like this in front of his friends, to risk being called a pansy.

“..Fine.” Lia finally gave in, pushing her brother towards the direction of his classroom. “Now go away.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank yo-!” a smile broke out on his face and he could’ve started jumping in excitement if two girls didn’t wave and giggle at him as they came out of the bathroom, prompting him to lean against the wall and give them a chin-up and a wink.

Lia shook her head.

“You’re an idiot.”

 

\- - -

 

So all of the information he had gotten up to this point was that Ryujin was born in Seoul, but had to move to China for ten years because of something with her parents. She recently moved back to Korea and now lives in the house he stumbled upon the other night with her grandmother and her dog, Soju.

She liked to bake and walk Soju in her free time, as well as helping her grandmother collect recyclables around their neighborhood. Volunteering was also something she spent her time doing. She studied well in both Korea and China, which was impressive.

But he found out absolutely NO information about her dating history, past boyfriends, or her ideal type.

“You managed to get all of this but NOTHING about her love life?” Yeonjun half-whispered, half-yelled to his sister a few days after Ryujin’s arrival.

“Hey, take it or leave it. Either way, you owe me.” Lia snapped at him, throwing a rather sharp punch to his arm. “That means 20000 won and no more bringing girls home to _our_ house."

“Fine…” he pulled out twenty thousand won from his pocket and placed it in Lia’s open palm. “Thanks anyways.”

“All I have to say is good luck. By the way, here comes your little crush now.” Lia nodded towards Ryujin making her way across the hallways, already surrounded by a crowd of girls crooning “Unnie~” and asking her to go somewhere after school and join their club.

“Unnie will get to all of you, don’t worry!~” Yeonjun heard her say, right after her cute little laugh.

“She’s so cute.” he breathed. “I need her to notice me.”

“Oooh, look at this. The Golden Hyung and the biggest fuckboy in school wants the new girl to notice *him*.” Lia whistled, patting her brother on the back. “Oh, how the tables have turned.”

“I’m going to talk to her during lunch.” he decided. “I need to stop being a pussy and just talk to her. And I mean..” he formed an angle with his thumb and index finger and held it up to his chin. “Even that innocent princess can’t resist this face.”

 

\- - -

 

“Dude… Hyosung’s tits were literally about to pop out of her shirt today, I swear…” Mark shook his head in amazement.

“I saw that too, man!” Jihoon joined in. “I was just *waiting* for a button to pop- that would’ve been a show.”

“It’s a good thing she’s in my homeroom.” Woojin added, puffing his chest out as if he accomplished something. “I get to see that potentially happen one day.”

“You’re too young to be thinking like that, Woojin.” Lucas messed up other's hair, despite only being months older than him. “There is no way Hyosung is a first year though. What kind of first year has tits like THAT, right, Yeonjun?”

No answer.

“DUDE.”

“Huh? What? What did you say?” he snapped out of his trance, as he was going over what he was going to say to Ryujin in his head. Should he crack a joke like ‘So I’m not drunk this time, haha’? Or ask about Soju? One of his usual lines like ‘Hey girl, what you doing tonight?’ accompanied with a wink? Or just something simple like ‘Hey, remember me? The druggie that slept on your dog’s bed!’?

For once in his life, he was lost.

He had bedded dozens of girls before, but he was lost when it came to her.

“Dude.. you must really like the new girl, huh? Man, your type has changed a lot.” Woojin remarked. “Well, what are you waiting for? She’s getting off the lunch line, use the Golden Hyung’s charms and get it!” He nudged him off his seat, forcing him to stand and slowly start to make his way towards Ryujin.

“Yeonjun oppa~!”

Now what?

He looked down to see the tiny girl looking up at him, tapping her foot impatiently. He had went with Shin Yuna *once*, and that was the last time his boys got his piss-drunk and he didn’t have any memory of what happened the night before save for the various kiss marks on his face and his body. But Yuna had some pretty.. intense demands, so it never worked out.

Not to mention that she was a brat that thought she was hotter than she actually was.

99% of guys who ended up sleeping or dating her agreed. Most tried to avoid her altogether because of her tendency to twist stories and words.

“Oh. Yuna. What do you want?” he halfheartedly asked, eyes glued on Ryujin sitting down at her table of new followers.

“Yeonjun oppa, are you free tonight?” Yuna pulled on his tie to force him to look at her, making sure his attention wasn’t diverted in any way. “I have some.. homework I need help with.”

“Get a tutor then.” he broke out of her grip and started towards Ryujin again, before being pulled back. She had an immense amount of strength for such a skinny girl..

“Oppa.” her gaze grew serious, but he still couldn’t bear to look at her bright blue contacts and huge false lashes. “You better be free tonight.”

“I’m busy.”

“Are you busy enough to ignore these pictures going out? Yuna held up her phone to his face, and his eyes widened at the picture he saw.

It was a shot of him on Ryujin’s balcony the other night, taken from a higher building next door. He was seated on the balcony, and it looked like Ryujin was kneeling down in front of him and…

“Where the hell did you get this from?” Yeonjun’s voice dropped, clenching his fist. “Who took that?”

“Jackson, of course. He’s the best photographer in school, and will do anything for the right price.” Yuna cracked a smile. “Now, I know you don’t want to ruin your innocent little princess’s reputation, so what time should I come over? 11?”

“Delete it.”

“I know we’ll have lots of fun later-“

“I said delete it.”

“I’ll see you later, oppa- ah!!”

He grabbed her by the wrist and held her there, ultimately yelling,

“DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME THE FIRST TIME?”

The cafeteria grew silent.

A fork dropped.

Yuna was taken aback in surprise, and managed to give Yeonjun the evilest smirk before she started sniffling. Before he knew it, she was in full-blown “tears”, before he could even let go of her wrist.

“O-Oppa, why are you s-so scary…. I told you I don’t want to go out with you!!” she got out through her act.

The cafeteria instantly started murmuring, the girls making sour faces at Yeonjun.

Then Ryujin made eye contact with Yeonjun for a millisecond, and recognition flashed in her eyes, before turning into something else. Her eyes grew darker as she got up from the table and marched towards Yeonjun and Yuna. She pulled the teary Yuna away from him and rubbed her back, before turning to Yeonjun and giving him a clean slap across the face.

“And I thought you were a more decent person when you were drunk.” she shook her head, her expression filled with contempt.

“Ryujin, I-“

“There’s a reason I only date girls- it’s people like you.”

Everyone stopped.

She gave him a look filled with disappointment and embarrassment before pushing him back and leaving, he was still stunned.

“G-Girls?!”


	3. tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is such crack its literally the most random characters being shipped with each other its gr9  
> ENJOy

Lia kicked off her shoes and pulled out her ponytail, fanning herself and letting the air conditioning do its work on the humid air making it way through the door. She picked up the bag of food, making sure the stuff inside wouldn’t spill as she lugged it to her brother’s room.

“Jun, are you alive?” she kicked open the door to Yeonjun’s room, greeted by a giant lump on the bed. “I got you lunch.”

“I’m not hungry.” he muttered, rolling over in his sheets to look at his sister. “…Do I smell soft tofu?”

Lia pushed the bag over to him with her food, as her brother fell out of his bed and onto his floor, crawling over to his meal.

“You’ve lost a lot of weight..” Lia noticed. “Probably because you stopped going to the gym with your bros and you refuse to eat.”

“They’re fine without me. And I’m just not hungry these days.”

“It’s been over a month since that thing with Yuna, are you still that upset?”

“I am NOT.” he protested, with a mouthful of stew. “…I think.”

“You only come to school three days a week, tops. You’ve completely cut off communication with your friends and the girls you were messing around with before. Most importantly, you HAVEN’T CLEANED YOUR ROOM. There’s something wrong, Yeonjun.”

“The only girl I need is Ryujin.” he sighed, leaning his head into his hand.

“Yeonjun, she likes girls.”

“I know!!” he yelled in exasperation. “The only girl I think is special is a lesbian. Don’t you see how lucky I am?” He could still feel the sharp stinging of Ryujin’s slap, even if it was from a month ago.

“I don’t know, Yeonjun, the best thing for you to do is get over her and move on with your life. There’s plenty of other girls in our school, and not to mention you’re not even in college yet!!” Lia tried to coerce him out of his misery, picking up the clothes and the trinkets he had strewn all over his room. She was trying to make the best out of the situation, although a part of her encouraged her brother staying at home. Some of the rumors she heard about him were just downright vile. She knew that Yeonjun liked sleeping around, but he would never do something to a girl if she didn’t want it.

Lia despised her brother’s attitude, but she hated it when others talked about him badly.

Because only she was allowed to do that.

“I have no chance with her.” Yeonjun finished his stew, and buried his face in a pillow he grabbed off his bed. “Unless I miraculously wake up as a woman tomorrow.”

Wait.

Lia glanced over at her brother, a million thoughts running through her head.

“Unless….”

Yeonjun looked up, interested.

“What? Unless what?” he pressed.

“There is  _ one _ way you could potentially fix your reputation AND try to make her fall for you..” Lia held her chin in her hand. “But you might not like it.”

“What is it? Tell me!! At this point I’ll do anything!” Yeonjun crawled over to his sister, eyes wide and full of anticipation.

“Come to school dressed as a girl.”

He immediately closed his mouth.

“….Oh, fu-“

“THINK ABOUT IT.” Lia grabbed her brother by the back of his shirt and pulled him back, preventing him from running away. “You come into school, you befriend her, and tell her all the fluff you want about yourself- well, your male self. And since she’s already one of the most popular girls in school, that’ll automatically clear your reputation and you can come back as yourself!”

“Are you kidding, Lia?!” he tried to pull himself out of his sister’s grasp. “Do you have any idea how much I could ruin my reputation if someone recognized me? It would only make it worse!! And besides, I don’t even know how to do.. girl… stuff.”

“Which is why you should be grateful you have a sister.” she gestured to herself. “Do you want your reputation back or not?”

Yeonjun pressed his lips together in a straight line.

If he got caught, he’d be known as a pervert AND an asshole.

But if he didn’t… he’d get his reputation back, potentially have Ryujin to himself, and he could simply erase his temporary persona.

All he had to do was lay low.

“...I’ll do it.” he gave in.

“Good!” Lia clapped her hands, a smile appearing on her face. “Now you’re going to have to shave since you’re gonna be wearing a skirt, and we also need to get you a wig, underwear...”

“Can’t I just wear leggings..?” he asked. “And who the hell is going to see what I’m wearing INSIDE?"

“Yeonjun, in the time you’ve gone to our school, how many girls have seen wear leggings with their uniform?”

“It’s only gonna take a few days and then I’ll be done!” he protested.

“Ryujin isn’t an easy person like that.”

“But… it’s me we’re talking about.” he gave his sister a look, as if to point out something obvious. “Don’t worry, Lia, I got this.”

This reminded her why she hated him.

 

\- - -

 

The schoolyard in the morning was always full of pretty girls. Friends were entering the gate while chatting with each other happily, some were also running, messing around. Some were also flirting with the boys, brushing up against them and wafting their sweet candy-like perfume.

There was some space by the stairs, where Soobin took the liberty to spread out his art supplies and continue his drawing.

Ryujin bounced over to the boy, inviting herself to sit down beside him. She was sipping on a juice box, and held out another one to him.

Unlike a month ago, where he would’ve frozen if a female specimen even looked in his general direction, he grew more comfortable with Ryujin. She was the first person to ever reach out to him, and remind him that he wasn’t invisible.

It was funny how he, considered to be lower than bacteria in the school, became close with an outspoken figure like her.

But no, she wasn’t the one.

Even if she was, he couldn’t instigate anything anyway.

“Want one?” she asked. “And you’re still working on this one, Soobin?"

“True art takes time.” he answered, not looking up from his book. “Unlike your art project you presented yesterday.”

“Yah. I never claimed to be a mysterious sketch genius like someone.” she gently nudged him, making sure his pencil wasn’t down.

“Um, actually, I never said those words.” a semblance of a smile graced his face. “Misunderstood artistic mind is the correct term.”

“Maybe you can help me upgrade my stick-figure drawings.” Ryujin asked, poking a hole in the juice box for him.

Soobin made a concerned face, and sucked air in through his teeth.

“I don’t have magical powers, Ryujin.”

She punched him in the arm and the two burst into laughter, before the schoolyard grew quiet.

Everyone felt a silent wind from a certain place. They all turned then saw someone step inside the gate.. The yard turned to a silent one, everyone staring at them in shock. Some of their things dropped. Including their jaws.

Grey leggings, round glasses, old pink sneakers, matted and stringy hair, the pleated uniform skirt worn down to the knees, two circles of blush on their face, and a feeble attempt at a gradient lip.

“Wait.. is it winter?" one of the girls sneered, causing the schoolyard to fill with laughter. The object of interest simply stuck their nose in the air, sauntering over to the school doors.

Soobin attention was instantly stolen.

Lia, watching from several feet behind her brother, clenched her jaw, and shut her eyes to avoid the second-hand embarrassment that was permeating through the air.

“Yeonjun, I’m going to BEAT your ass.”

 

\- - -

 

Staring at the profile then back at the ‘girl’. The office clerk tilted her head to side and fixed her glasses, putting it on a different position before reading the profile again. She sighed before looking up again.

"So, Miss Choi? Choi… Yeonwoo?"

The clerk finally spoke after seeing the big difference between the person that was standing in front of her and the picture of their siblings. She just sighed again before giving 'her' another paper that that had a schedule.

"You have a sister? And another brother on medical leave right now?"

Funny, I'm the brother.

“Yeah.” he answered quickly, only remembering that he was still using his normal voice when a look of shock appeared on the lady’s face. He cleared his throat in an attempt to not sound so…. mannish. “I mean.. Yes!!” he managed to squeak out.

The clerk shook her head at 'her' voice, so she nodded and signaled Yeonjun to the door, "You can leave now, have a nice first day.”

 

\- - -

 

It wasn’t that hard to find her brother, really.

All she had to look for was the rat’s nest of a wig peeking above all the other girls in school.

That long-ass skirt helped him stand out too.

Lia grabbed him by his collar and spun him around, pulling him into an annex.

“Yeonjun, I’m trying SO HARD not to murder you right now.” she curled her hand up into a fist, shaking it in front of his face. “Oh my god, are you wearing my tint? On your cheeks  _ and _ your mouth?!”

“I’m not going to spend my own money on makeup just for these few days!” he shot back. “And what’s wrong with my outfit? I thought I looked pretty hot this morning.. I mean everyone was looking at me, so that must mean something, right?”

Lia facepalmed.

“I didn’t want to be known as the girl with the ugly sister!!” she yelled, making some of the students passing by look in their direction.

A teacher peeked in, trying to see where the noise was coming from.

“What are you two….. ladies doing in here? Get to class, please.”

“O~kay, seonsaengnim!” Yeonjun answered, attempting to give the teacher a smile and probably scaring him off instead, seeing how fast he ran away.

“I’ll deal with YOU after school.” Lia pointed her finger in his face. “But for the rest of the school day, don’t come near me, you got that?”

“Fine, little miss priss.” he muttered as she left, sticking his tongue out to her backside.

 

\- - -

 

“So did you see that girl this morning?” Ryujin slid into her usual seat next to the artist. “Those round glasses though. I haven’t seen those in years.”

“Yeah..” Soobin sat back in his seat. Ryujin noticed that neither his pencils nor sketchbook were out, and his eyes were in a haze.

“Soobin, you good?” she waved her hand in front of his face. “You trying to remember her?”

“Her fashion was…. so refreshing…” he muttered incoherently. “I’ve never seen any girl dress like that before.”

“Are you kidding me?” class president Taehyun happened to be putting his bag away in the lockers behind them. “That ‘girl’ is a MAN. How did you guys not see it?”

“Wow, Taehyun. As weird as she may look, that’s really low, even for you.” Ryujin shook her head in disgust at the boy, who stared at her speechlessly.

“She’s so unique..” Soobin continued on. “And her presence is so.. colorful.. It’s like... she brings vibrancy and saturates my misunderstood, monochrome world.”

“Okay, Romeo, slow down.” Ryujin whistled. “She just came today. Don’t overwhelm her if you’re gonna talk to her.”

As if there was a cue, the sliding door to the classroom made a huge sound, as the hot topic ‘herself’ walked in, head held high.

Even their teacher was shocked.

Yeonjun marched over to the teacher’s desk and handed her a piece of paper, standing in front of the classroom and scanning the seats.

Aww, his friends had left his usual seat open.

“Um.. class.. this is Miss.. Choi Yeonwoo, who just transferred here from California. Please take care of her.” the teacher announced, repeatedly looking back and forth at the paper and at Yeonjun. “You.. can take that seat in front of Soobin.”

Soobin was going to explode.

Yeonjun saw that the seat was about two feet away from Ryujin’s and almost sprinted to it, ignoring the stares and whispers going around the room. He threw his bag down and made himself comfortable- which included sitting in his seat with his legs completely spread.

Lia would’ve slapped him for that.

“Hi, Yeonwoo! I’m Ryujin!!” was like music to his ears when he finally heard it. He turned towards his guardian angel, who extended her hand and had one of her famous eye smiles on. He grabbed her hand and shook it a little too hard.

“Nice to meet you, Ryujin!” he cleared his throat, using a slightly smoother sounding tone than the one he attempted in the office.

“So you studied in America before you came here? That’s so cool!! Your English must be amazing!”

While the conversation of Yeonjun’s dreams was occurring, Soobin broke into a sweat and he was frozen in his seat. With no sketch book to hide behind, he was only a few inches away from his fantasy-come-true. If only he could reach out and brush his fingers against her hair..

“-by the way, this is my friend, Soobin! He’s an amazing artist, you gotta see his work one day.” he heard Ryujin say. He looked up to see her give him a subtle wink, before turning back to the person sitting directly in front of him.

“…Nice to meet you, Soobin.” Yeonjun half-muttered. 

So this was the guy that was chatting Ryujin up on her first day..

Soobin was so shocked that ‘she’ was talking to him that he sat there, mouth opening and closing like a fish. He wanted to say something- he wanted to recite one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, or one of the analogies he dreamt he would say to his future muse- but absolutely nothing came out.

“O-kay..” Yeonjun slowly turned away from him and back to Ryujin. “Say.. do you think I could eat with you later? I.. don’t have anyone to eat with.. since it’s my first day..”

“Of course!! Anything for a new friend!”

Yeonjun could’ve jumped for joy at that moment. 

What was Lia talking about? This would take a week, tops.

Only an hour later, he would wish he hadn’t thought that.

He scanned the cafeteria for his usual crew and Lia. His group was sitting at their table nearest to the food, and Lia was with her friends a few tables away.

“Yeonwoo, this way!” Ryujin called out and motioned for him to come onto the line with her.

It was like a scene from his dream, that she would save a spot on the lunch line for him. Maybe one day she would even add “honey” or some other pet name for him at the end.

“So tell me about your life in America! I’m really curious.”

'Shit, I didn’t plan this far ahead..’

“Well… I lived with both my mom and my dad in… New York.” he made up on the spot, grabbing a metal tray from the pile and moving alongside Ryujin. It wasn’t completely a lie though. His parents were probably in New York. Or some other major city. He didn’t know, he never really kept track of his parents’ travel destinations.

“New York?! I really want to go there some day..”

“We also…. had a dog! A German shepherd..?” he lied.

“Oh my gosh, I have a German shepherd too!! Her name is Soju and she’s the sweetest little thing.. You should meet her sometime!!!”

“Can’t wait!”

Their conversation was interrupted by several complaints from other students. A couple was clinging to each other and cutting students, and when Yeonjun saw their faces he quietly clenched his fist by his side and narrowed his eyes. Yuna and another one of her boy toys. This time, though, it wasn’t just some nobody she picked up. Wooseok, a third year whose gang was one Yeonjun used to be part of, before he technically challenged him and split their once bigger group into two smaller ones.

The two started making out in the middle of the line, right in front of Ryujin.

“Let’s go.” Yeonjun tugged on her uniform and started moving around the two people eating each other’s faces. He briefly hit his shoulder against Yuna’s since the space around them was so small.

And because he was extremely petty.

He stifled a laugh as he saw Yuna trying to grasp Wooseok’s hair, but failing and settling for trying to push his head closer to hers. 

What a messy attempt at a hot kiss.

Yuna broke away from him, and gave the loudest scoff Yeonjun heard in a while.

“Yah, ugly new girl!” she screeched, catching the attention of the cafeteria. “Did you just laugh?”

“Nope.” he answered simply, turning around on his heel.

“But you did.” she stepped closer, crossing her arms. “What were you laughing at?”

“I told you, nothing.” Yeonjun answered, shrugging. He was about to turn around again before Yuna put her foot out and tripped him, his tray clattering to the floor.

Lia, who was sitting a few tables away, prayed that he wouldn’t overreact.

“Yeonjun, don’t let her get to you…” she whispered anxiously.

On the other hand, Yeonjun stared at the the linoleum floor for a good ten seconds trying to calm himself down. He pushed himself up and fixed his messy bangs.

“I was laughing because even in America I’ve never seen a girl cling onto her toy so desperately as you do.”

“You bitc-!” Yuna was about to take a swing at him, before he grabbed her arm and pushed it down.

“Yah. Ugly new girl.” Wooseok finally stepped in, standing several centimeters over Yeonjun. “I know you want me, but hurting my girl isn’t the way to try and get me.”

“Excuse me?” Yeonjun raised an eyebrow, becoming slightly amused.

“You don’t think I saw you looking at me the way you did just a few seconds ago?” he asked as he gave the cockiest smirk.

“Oh, is that what you thought? If that’s that case, then I’m sorry for confusing you~” he mockingly bowed. “I was just disgusted at how ugly you are.”

Several people in the room gasped. Girls in line started whispering.

Wooseok chuckled to himself, stepping towards Yeonjun with his fists clenched.

“I’ll have you know, I might as well be the most handsome one in this school.” he explained. “And I don’t think you have the right to be judging me for my looks, duckface.”

“Cute nickname.” Yeonjun remarked, his confidence from when he first challenged his senior slowly making its comeback. “But honestly, my face would be gorgeous if I wanted it to be."

Wooseok scoffed.

“Think of me as an unscratched lottery ticket.” Yeonjun was the one to step towards him now, making him waver and even back up. “Since I’ve already got the ticket.. I think I’ll save it to scratch off later.”

He could see the other kids in line with their mouths hanging open. Ryujin looked on with the most impressed look on her face.

Yeonjun continued to move towards Wooseok, eventually backing him into a pillar.

“You’d be all over me.” he finished, flicking him in the forehead and turning around on his heel.

The reaction from the students made the cafeteria shake.

 

\- - -

 

Yeonjun blew on his palm, which was still red from being pushing onto the cafeteria floor.

If he had to deal with that every day until he managed to get Ryujin to fall for him, he may have to rethink his plan.

“Who knew girls had to deal with this much shit?” he grumbled, covering his face from the afternoon sun as he stood outside to wait for Lia.

Instead of his sister, he found Ryujin standing in front of him.

“Yeonwoo, that thing you pulled during lunch was amazing.” she shook her head. “You finally stuck it to that homophobic piece of trash!”

“Homophobic?” Yeonjun repeated. Great, another shitty thing to add to his personality.

“Oh.. I should probably let you know.” she remembered. “I like girls, and Bang Chan said something to me about me eventually ending up running to a guy, so you standing up to him meant a lot to me.”

“Really..?” Yeonjun asked, his heart lifting as Ryujin wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.

This was absolute bliss.

“You know what?” Ryujin started after pulling away from him. All he wanted to do was pull her back in and hug her forever. “You should come in looking absolutely gorgeous tomorrow to prove your point to Bang Chan and all the other boys that called you those mean nicknames today!! I-I mean, not that you’re not pretty now, I-“

“It’s okay, I know what you mean.” Yeonjun stopped her in the middle of her oncoming apology.

“Op- _Unnie_!” Lia came out of the school doors, stopping in front of the door. “Let’s go home now. I have a lot of….. things I need to discuss with you,  _ Yeonwoo _ .”

Yeonjun visibly cringed at the name, and was pulled away from Ryujin by his sister. He could already feel her perfectly manicured nails digging into his skin as he waved goodbye to his angel.


	4. fouwur

“What the FUCK were you thinking?!” Lia hit him with her backpack in between every word. “People are already asking around how I came out the way I did, and what the hell happened to ‘ _Yeonwoo_ ’!? Also is that really the best name you could come up with?!”

“I said I was sorry!” Yeonjun protested, pulling the tangled wig off his head.

“You better be. Just because YOUR reputation is ruined doesn’t mean MINE needs to be too.” she finally chucked her backpack at him, running her hands through her hair. “But I see you already managed to make a name for yourself. I have to admit.. the thing you pulled at lunch was impressive.”

“Thank you.” he nodded, looking quite pleased with himself. “Oh, that reminds me.. can you help me with… this..?” He gestured to himself and his monstrosity of an outfit.

“What, once Ryujin disapproves, you want me to help NOW?” Lia raised an eyebrow.

“Lia, come on.” Yeonjun pushed out his bottom lip. “Don’t you want people to regret calling your ‘sister’ an ugly duckface?”

“…I do love proving people wrong..”

“So~?”

Lia stood up from the bed, beckoning Yeonjun to come with her.

“Hurry up and change. I’m taking you to the place I usually go to.”

“What.. are they gonna do?” Yeonjun asked warily.

“Everything you’re gonna need for tomorrow- including a functional wig, fittings, waxing, and-“

“Waxing?!” his eyes widened in fear. “Can’t I just shave?”

Lia shook her head in frustration and pulled him along by his ear,

“This is what you get for embarrassing me on your first day."

He never thought he would be scared to death by three very tall, very attractive women.

“Well, who do we have here?” the first of the three spoke, the blonde one. “This is your brother?"

“You never told me your brother was this cute, Lia...” the redhead pursed her lips and ran her hand across Yeonjun’s back. The sound of her heels against the marble flooring echoed in his ears, already giving him goosebumps. These girls at the salon reminded him of a more refined version of the types of girls he used to mess around with, and he ending up questioning why he ever brought any of those second-class girls home anyway.

But he was already starting to think this was a mistake.

“Cute, where?” Lia remarked. “Now can you do what you said could do? I just need a demo here so I know what I should do at home.”

“I don’t know, will he let us do our work?” asked the tallest one, with sleek black hair and bold red lips. “Is he willing to experience what us ladies have to go through every single day?”

Suddenly four pairs of eyes were on him, as he tried to find the exact wording of his answer in his head.

“….Look, just because I agreed to do this doesn’t mean I’m like, ga-“

“STRIP HIM.”

 

\- - -

 

If Yeonjun had to pick the most painful thing he ever had to go through, what was happening right now trumped the time he twisted his arm attempting to ride a motorcycle and the other time where he ran face first into a brick wall while trying to run from another gang.

He never knew that a tub of pink wax and a few strips of paper could send him into an entirely new dimension of pain.

“FUCK..!” he blurted out, immediately biting down on his bottom lip right after to prevent anything else from coming out. It was only the third strip so far, and he already felt like he was going to pass out.

“Yeonjun, if you keep crying, it’s only going to take longer.”

“I am not crying!!” he protested, quickly wiping away the tears that welled up in his eyes from the pain. “How many more?”

“I want to say… three?” Blondie estimated, counting her fingers. “But it might be more since Lia told us you wanted to wax *everything*.”

‘Oh, Lia, you’re gonna get it when I’m done..’

He would have to get through another twenty minutes of feeling like his skin was being ripped off before he could do anything to Lia, though.

“What was that slimy stuff you put all over my face before?” Yeonjun asked, grabbing a towel from a nearby table and proceeding to quickly dry his wet face with it.

Redhead rushed over and stopped him from doing any more damage.

“We JUST finished your skincare course, can you at least remember to pat, not rub?” she chastised him, taking the towel from his hands and gently dabbing his face with it. “And that was the secret for why girls have such perfect skin!”

“Not all girls…” he thought back to how Yuna would always wear glops of foundation, then shivered in disgust. “And am I almost done yet?” he complaining, preparing to lie back down on the plush seat and fall asleep. “This is so tiring…"

“No naptime for you, princess.” the lady with the red lipstick walked in, motioning for Yeonjun to follow her.

He moved carefully, as his very red legs still stung from that horrific process he had to go through. The next room almost blinded him with white lights, and looking around, what was about to happen dawned on him all at one.

“…Is this.. makeup?” he asked, looking at her with a slightly terrified expression.

“Maybe you’re not as slow as Lia makes you out to be.” she remarked before pushing him down in a seat. “Now would you like to see the process or do you want to wait until the end?”

“Let him be surprised.” Lia appeared in the room, holding a bag out to Blondie and Redhead. There was the weirdest smile on her face. “I just need to run out and go buy a few more.. things for my brother. I’m entrusting him with you, Lee!!” she blew her brother a kiss before she literally skipped out the door.

To Yeonjun, the next hour was just a flurry of more goop, soft brushing on his face, the girls poking his eyes with literal STICKS and gluing fake… hair… onto his eyes…?

If every girl he bedded went through this much, how the hell did they all look without makeup?

He could feel his pride slowly dwindle when Blondie and Redhead almost blinded him trying to get the wig Lia had gotten him onto his head. He knew that it would be absolute hell to wear the thing for the entire day in the heat outside.

“Aw, he looks cute!” Blondie cooed as she was curling the wig, making a little part of him die inside. “He has such a small face too, I’m jealous..”

“Wait till you see yourself, _honey_.” Redhead bent down in front of him, tilting his head up to face her. “You’re going to be so surprised.”

He heard the door to the place open and close.

“I’m ba~ck~” Lia sang, standing there with her arms open.

She could barely see her brother before he stood up and bolted to the changing room, holding the curtains to the wall so that she wouldn’t be able to see him at all. He regretted looking around the space, since the entire wall behind him was a giant mirror.

…Let’s just say his pride dropped to a fatal state when he saw himself.

‘This isn’t gay, you’re doing this for Ryujin.’ was the only thought that kept him from breaking down.

“Let me just get this over with.” he grumbled from behind the curtain, feeling the tips of his ears become hot.

“Yeonjun, I’m going to see you eventually. Why are you running?” Lia stuck her hand inside the room, holding out a large shopping bag. “Put all of these on.”

He dumped out all of the contents, sifting through them before he debated whether or not to just curl up in a ball and never come out of that dressing room.

‘Ryujin..’

“Lia, who the hell is gonna look at what I’m wearing inside?!” he yelled through the curtain. “….And how the hell do you girls put ON a bra? I’ve only ever taken them OFF girls!!”

“Do you want me to come in and he-“

“ **NEVERMIND**.”

After some degree of difficulty and contemplating his life choices that led him to where he was, he managed to figure out the uniform. He didn’t want to know where Lia got one in his size, and was surprised that everything seemed to fit.

However, he had held up the skirt for what felt like forever, noting that it was definitely significantly shorter than the one had finessed from the school’s lost and found for earlier in the day. It wasn’t like he didn’t appreciate a short skirt once in a while, but you know, they were usually _ON_ GIRLS.

He took one last gulp, pulled the piece of fabric on and tucked the uniform shirt in, not used to the strange breeze running up his bare legs.

Yeonjun bit down on his lip, his ears and face growing hotter by the second.

Was it just him or did it feel even shorter when he wore it?

'Why do I feel like the biggest pervert right now..?'

"How am I supposed to walk around like this?" he huffed and attempted to pull the hem of the skirt down, but it wouldn't go past its mid-thigh length. He purposely tried avoiding the mirror right behind him, as the tiny glance earlier had already made him scared to see how the final product looked.

....Did he look passable?

“Yeonjun, are you done yet?” Lia stood outside of the curtain, leaning against the wall and growing giddier with every passing second.

“Lia, I don’t know if I can do this…” she heard her brother say quietly. Yeonjun didn’t even notice that he was already playing with a long strand of his new hair out of nervousness.

“Come _ON_ , Jun, there’s no backing out now!!!” she suddenly grew impatient, grabbing the curtain and opening it for herself. “Now **LET ME SEE YOU**!!”

This was the reason why he questioned his sister’s hobbies sometimes.

 

“Oh. My. God.”

 

The longest minute of silence.

 

“ _Junnie_ _~~!!_ ” 

 

Oh, _lord_.

Lia threw herself at her brother (sister…?), pulling him into a tight hug that required a lot more strength than someone her size. She showered him with compliments, placing them in between her incessant squealing.

“Junnie, you’re so pretty~ The uniform skirt makes your legs look amazing~ Ah, why do you look so good in falsies? You actually look so innocent like this, who knew!! My pretty sister~” she gushed.

“This doesn’t make me… **gay** or anything, remember that.” was the only thing he could muster.

“Now people will actually believe you and I are somewhat related!” Lia turned him to face the floor length mirror in the dressing room.

 

 

_Who was **she** ? _

 

Large doe eyes framed by long lashes, a glowing complexion, and plump pink lips made him wonder if it was just makeup or straight up black magic. He knew his face had always been more on the “softer” side but everything the girls did made him look like the epitome of innocent, pretty schoolgirl. 

‘ _Me……? Pretty…..?_ ’ it even felt weird to think that, whilst scanning his reflection up and down.

The soft curls of the wig that framed his face reached down to his chest and smoothed out the harsher edges of his jawline, and he was starting to see where the “cute” comments were coming from- Blondie and Redhead had snuck a tiny bow into his wig, and the massively oversized school cardigan swallowed his shoulders and hands, reminding him of how the tiny, soft girls he had seen out and about would playfully swat their boyfriend’s chests while cooing sweet nothings that they would no doubt find irresistible.

Yeonjun always thought that he would be on the receiving end of those sweet nothings, though.

“I….” the voice coming out of his mouth definitely didn’t match his appearance, taking him aback. “Wha… How..What did you-?”

“Oh my, he’s absolutely _precious_!” Blondie appeared behind them, clasping her hands together.

“You all managed to turn my idiot baby brother into _this_ , I have to applaud you.” Irene laughed, fixing bits and pieces of the uniform. “Ugh, Junnie, I’ve always been jealous of your tiny ass waist and your freaking slim legs, you might even look better in skirts than I do..”

“Is that an accomplishment?” he smirked, swinging around his sweater paws.

“Don’t push it, **unnie**.” Lia emphasized the last word, giving his butt a quick slap that he normally would've brushed off. Instead, he  _yelped_ and scrambled to hold down his skirt, resulting in his highly amused sister. “Aww, is our pretty _Yeonwoo_ all shy now~? I've never seen you like this.”

“Um, do you guys...... not wear anything over your underwear?” he gingerly asked, his hand securely on the back of his skirt. “What if the wind blows it up or something..?”

“Then you’ll be giving everybody a _great_ show.” she winked and patted him on the back. 

 

This was not what he signed up for.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeonjun is fkn pretty so yeonwoo would be fkn pretty and thats the tea


	5. fwive

Lia woke him up two hours earlier than he would usually get up at, and insisted on him taking a shower before he would have to go through half of the process he did the night before.

Since Lia wasn’t a professional like Blondie and Redhead, she may have poked him in the eye one too many times while she was doing his makeup, but the end result was near identical to what Lee did on him.

Then came the long process of the wig and his clothes, to which he shooed Lia out of his room before he put on the uniform piece by piece, including the dreaded underwear. He slowly shuffled his way over his full-length mirror and sighed at his reflection.

“I never thought that I’d be wearing this fucking skirt one day."

He looked so different from his disheveled self that rolled out of bed that morning, that he was debating whether or not he would go for himself if he was the opposite gender.

“Yeonwoo isn’t as innocent as she seems..” he scoffed at the mirror, giving himself a final once-over after he put on his socks (which had these disgusting little hearts at the ankles) and shoes (thank GOD he could still wear his sneakers) before opening the door to a very excited Lia.

“Junnie~ let’s go!” she yelled, looping her hand in with Yeonjun’s and pulling him outside. “Now do you remember everything I taught you last night?”

“I’m… pretty sure?”

“Repeat everything to me.” she commanded.

“Uh… sit with my legs together?” he listed.

“And?”

“Cover my mouth when I laugh? Don’t laugh loudly.”

“And?”

“TRY not to get into any fights. And if I do, only fight with words, not fists.”

“And the most important thing?”

“….uh…” his mind went blank, looking down at Lia with an apologetic look.

“The Three F’s!!” Lia repeated. “You need to _Flaunt_ your stuff, _Faze_ everyone in your way, and then _Flirt_ using everything you’ve got.”

“Flirting….. with guys….” he repeated, obviously not too pleased with the idea. “Don’t tell me that I have to mess around with Wooseok too…”

“As much of a jackass that guy is.. he literally throws himself at the feet of any new ‘goddess’ that comes around.” Lia explained. “So you get him on your side, take advantage of him, and who knows- maybe he’ll be an underling in YOUR crew when Yeonjun returns."

“I don’t get why I can’t just say I’m a lesbian too?” he asked, cringing at the possibility of being NICE to Wooseok.

“Ryujin is the first lesbian student at our school. How convenient is it that ANOTHER one shows up exactly a month after she gets here?”

“Oh.” he nodded quietly.

“Look.” Lia tugged on her brother’s cardigan sleeve. “The secret is to lead the boys on, but never give them what they want.”

“Come on, of course they won’t be played that easily.” Yeonjun rolled his eyes.

“I say this from watching you for the past year.” Lia remarked, before bolting up the street.

“What did you say, you brat?!” Yeonjun chased his sister, trying to hold down the back of his skirt. He managed to get all the way to the schoolyard, and he was so focused on catching Lia that he didn’t notice that he had ran all the way into the heart of the schoolyard crowd. “YAH!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking and drawing the attention of everyone.

Over a hundred eyes were on him.

He froze.

“Who is she?”

Oh god...

“I don’t know, but isn’t she...”

_Oh god, oh god…_

“..kind of cute?”

**_Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh go-_ **

He was too busy looking around him in terror that he didn’t see the hand holding his dropped phone in front of his face.

”Hey. You dropped your phone.” the male student pointed out.

“T-Thanks, I-“ he looked up to see who the hand belonged to, and it was none other than the asshole he embarrassed yesterday at lunch, Wooseok.

A wave of anger immediately washed over his body, his ears heating up and his fists subconsciously clenching. His tone immediately changed, his rough tone in his original voice even coming through. “What do you think you’re doing with my phone, you asshat?” he blurted out.

Wooseok stood there, stunned.

From his perspective, the only reason he had picked up the phone was the fact that it was mere millimeters from falling on his foot, and _meh_ , he was feeling nice today.

He was expecting the owner of the phone to be just another insignificant student that would oh-so-gratefully thank him and go about their day, but when they turned around, it all occured in slow motion. Wooseok certainly wasn’t expecting to be greeted by a pair of sparkly eyes, along with the most _boopable_ nose he had ever seen, heavily contrasting with the profanity she had just uttered. Not to mention the subject’s utterly kissable pink lips-

**Wait.**

“….D-Duckface?” he stuttered, mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"I'm sorry!" his lifesaver came pushing through the crowd, interrupting with an apologetic smile. Lia squeezed her brother’s arm, giving him a very threatening look. “Unnie.” she stressed the pet name, making a little part of Yeonjun’s pride die inside. “You should say thank you to Wooseok, you could’ve lost your phone!"

“Lia.” Yeonjun said through gritted teeth, nodding over the the person standing in front of them. She gave him the most annoyed glare he had seen yet and dug her nails deeper into his arm. He turned back to his rival, who still held out his phone for him, but seemed a bit shaken at this point. He swallowed down the rest of his pride as he brought up a sleeve-covered hand to cover his mouth, feigning shock and uttering a single, “ _Oh my gosh!~_ ”

Lia tried so hard to hold back her laugh.

“I can’t believe I almost lost my phone, I’m so clumsy!”

He died a little inside.

“Thank you so much, Wooseok… oppa~!” he said through clenched teeth, snatching the phone from his hand. He pushed past the wall of students to get inside of the school building, making sure to hold down the back of his skirt.

“Wow… you learn so fast, _unnie_!” Lia mused, hovering by her brother as he tried to get inside as quickly as possible.

“I’m dead inside.”

And this was only the beginning.

 

\- - -

 

The first thing on his mind after his wild morning was to find his guardian angel.

After dropping off Lia at her classroom, he scourged the hallways, looking for Ryujin’s glossy black hair. But there were just way too many people that flooded the building before class even started.

Maybe.. that nerd that she hangs out with?

He was so focused on finding either Ryujin or her artist friend that he didn’t notice the continuous stares and whispers from the other students in the halls. He also didn’t notice the growing crowd of boys trailing behind him.

Yeonjun peeked into his classroom and saw Soobin already in his seat, his head down in his arms.

‘What kind of loser is in the room twenty minutes before class starts..?’

“Hey you.” he greeted curtly, poking his arm. “Wake up.”

Soobin woke up in a jolt, with blurry vision and his hair in a matted mess.

If he had the willpower, he would’ve told off whoever woke him up because he was having the nicest dream about his new muse.

Which was why he almost had a heart attack when the muse herself was standing right in front of him, drumming her fingers on his desk impatiently.

She didn’t have all of the bells and whistles he had yesterday, but Soobin could still see the fiery spirit that burned in her eyes and the slight roughness to her voice. Soobin admitted that he did kind of miss the avant-garde fashion Yeonwoo had before, but as different as she looked, it was still difficult to breathe to around his muse.

And he lived for that.

“O-Oh, h-h-hi T-“

“Do you know where Ryujin is?”

“U-Uh… the lib-bra-“

“The what?” Yeonjun repeated, his patience thinning.

“L-Librar-r-“

“Oh, library, got it.”

In Soobin’s mind, the scene went in complete slow motion, his muse turning around before she left, and wiggling her fingers in a wave before blowing a kiss and leaving.

But in reality Yeonwoo simply turned and walked out with a single “Thanks.”

“I will chase you until you love me, my muse.” he called out to no one.

 

\- - -

 

Turns out the library was a dead end.

“I’m going to beat that nerd to dust..” he promised himself, pounding his fist into his other hand. He was walking back in the direction of his classroom again, frustrated that Ryujin was nowhere to be found. “Is she not in school today? Maybe she’s sick.. I should go check-“

“Yeonwoo!!!”

Her voice was like the sound of silver bells.

Ryujin ran up beside him, immediately looping her arm in his.

“I couldn’t find you this morning, but I heard a lot of stuff about you in the hallways! I almost didn’t recognize you..” she explained. “What did you do?”

His anger went away, and his spirits lifted instantly.

‘Wait.. why do I care if I look good as a woman?’ he asked himself.

“Oh.. I just wanted to change it up, you know?” he made up, when he really wanted to say “Lia would’ve actually murdered me otherwise”.

“Did you stick it to Wooseok this morning?” Ryujin made sure to ask. “PLEASE tell me you did.”

He gave her a smile and wink.

“You know I did.”

The two walked arm-in-arm to class.

 

\- - -

 

“ _Unnie_ ~!” Lia pulled him aside the moment he entered the cafeteria, to make him face her and a group of her first-year classmates. “My friends want to meet you!”

Time to be paraded around again..

“You’re so slim!” one of them said. “And your legs are so long..”

“Yeonwoo unnie, you have such a small face and nice proportions..” another one gushed. “Have you ever considered modeling?”

“Not really…” he answered, hoping to get out of the conversation quickly. “I just kinda want to focus on school right now..”

Taehyun walked past while the conversation was happening.

“You can’t fool me, ‘Yeonwoo’.” he spat, narrowing his eyes. “Guys, ‘she’ obviously has an Adam’s apple, and no girl is THAT tall.”

‘God, if people start believing this kid…’ Yeonjun could feel himself start to sweat.

“Wow, Taehyun.” Lia sighed.

“Wow, Taehyun.” the others echoed.

“Why can’t you just appreciate the female form in all of its shapes and sizes?” one of Lia’s classmates asked. “You’re so uncultured for a class president, gosh.”

The kid only shook his head as Lia led him away.

Turning around, he saw Ryujin waving at him from her usual table, with a plate of food already placed in his seat next to her.

‘She’s an actual angel, I swear.’

“So those kids want you to model.” was the first thing she said to him.

“First-years never know what they're talking about..” he sighed, picking at his cauliflower and peas.

“I mean,” Ryujin began. “Soobin could always use a model for sketching, right?” She turned to the other, who was seated right across from Yeonjun.

“Uh, I-“

“I’m not interested in becoming a model for ANY form of art.” Yeonjun stated, not even giving Soobin his full attention.

“How about a nude model?” a voice coming from above them interrupted their conversation. Of course it was none other than Wooseok.

“How about you shut up and get away from me and my friends?” Yeonjun looked up, “accidentally” flicking a pea in the general direction of his face.

“Aw come now, baby.” Wooseok moved his arm to place it on Yeonjun’s shoulder, to which he swiftly avoided, making Wooseok’s hand fly straight into the mashed potatoes on his tray.

“Smooth.”

One of Wooseok’s minions rushed over with napkins, and he let out an arrogant chuckle as he wiped off his hands.

“Look, I just wanted to.. apologize for what happened yesterday.” he began, finding it quite difficult to seem remorseful. “And I was wondering if there were any favors I could do to make it up to you?”

“Well, there is one…” Yeonjun put a finger on his lips.

“There is?” Ryujin and Soobin echoed.

“Get out of my face and never come near me again.” he announced, with the biggest smile on his face. “What are you still doing here? Shoo shoo.”

“So fearless…” Soobin breathed, his hands grabbing the edge of the table. He would’ve rushed in and formed a human barrier between ‘Yeonwoo’ and Wooseok, blurting out something like “Get away from my muse, you scoundrel!!”, but he decided that a black eye wasn’t worth it… yet. And besides, his muse seemed to be handling the situation quite well.

“Oh, here comes your little hoe!” Yeonjun pointed out Yuna rushing over to her boytoy’s side.

“Wooseok oppa, why don’t you come sit down with me?” she whined, jumping up and down and tugging on his shirt. “I even brought in my homemade bento box for you today!” She held up the box to his face, attempting to spoon-feed him some mysteriously green curry.

“Yuna, not now!!” he twisted his body to avoid the food, knocking the spoon out of her hand and flinging the curry right on Yeonjun’s pristine white sneakers.

He swore he could see a smile on Yuna’s face.

“Yeonwoo, your shoes..” Ryujin started.

“I’ll buy you a brand new pair.” Wooseok offered, pushing Yuna to the side.

“No need!” Yeonjun remained cheerful, despite his growing annoyance that there was bound to be a stain on his shoes now. He turned his body away from the table, and stuck his leg out to Wooseok.  

“Clean it for me.” he grinned evilly.

Wooseok had a blank stare on his face as he looked at his outstretched leg.

“Didn’t you hear her?” Ryujin asked, biting the side of her cheek to prevent herself from smiling. “You should listen to your goddess.”

Wooseok looked around at everyone, before kneeling down. Yeonjun couldn’t help but flinch as the other grabbed his ankle and cleaned his shoe with his sleeve.

Soobin looked on in awe, wondering how this new student managed to tame the most notorious third-year in the school basically overnight. But there was a tinge of jealousy that ran through him as he watched Wooseok come in such close contact with Yeonwoo.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

Yeonjun jumped, jerking his leg in surprise and kicking Wooseok square in the face.

Now if this was anyone else, he would’ve stopped to check if they were okay, because it really was an accident on his part.  

But this was the Golden Hyung.

"Oopsies~ My bad.” Yeonjun gave him another smile before gracefully plucking his leg out of his hold. “Use the money you would have spent on me on your new nose job.” he spun around and strutted out of the cafeteria, a beaming Lia trailing behind him.


	6. sixxx

Ryujin usually walked home with Soobin after school, after exchanging goodbyes with Lia and Yeonjun. They both lived in the same neighborhood, and she honestly enjoyed his company. They had only known each other for a short while but Ryujin couldn’t believe how this kid barely had any friends- he was talented, extremely intelligent, had a superior sense of humor, and Ryujin KNEW that he could clean up well if he wanted to.

It was just his crippling shyness that prevented him from getting out of his shell.

“Hurry up, grandpa!” she looked behind her, to see Soobin with his head down to his phone, squinting his eyes to read what was on his screen. She ran back to where he was and snatched the phone out of his hands.

“H-Hey!!”

“‘How to get abs’.” she read the article that he was supposedly looking at. “Aww, our little Soobin wants to become a white knight for Yeonwoo?” she gushed, holding the phone in front of her heart. “Why don’t you talk to her?”

“I don’t think she likes talking to me.” he admitted, snatching the phone back and quickly exiting out of his browser. “I always feel like a third wheel whenever I’m with you guys.”

Which was true, in a way. For the past week he had been following the two around on their misadventures, which mostly just included Yeonwoo making the most out of Wooseok’s obsession with her and completely milking the money (and sanity) out of him.

To Soobin, his jealous fits at home may have caused him to ruin a few sketch pads or so. He just couldn’t find the willpower inside himself to actually speak to Yeonwoo, and most of the time he felt like he was interrupting something. Every time he would think he had the confidence to go up and talk to her, it was always broken down by the fear that she would completely ignore him or another interruption from someone else.

“Do you really feel that way, Soobin?”

He realized that what he said may have come out wrong, and he panicked, trying to quickly correct himself.

“I-I mean, you know that you’re one of my only friends.” he explained, trying to find the correct words. “But.. I don’t really serve any purpose when I hang out with you guys besides pining after Yeonwoo and making things awkward for all of us.”

“Aw, Soobin.” Ryujin reached up and gave her friend a pat on his head. “How about this? From today forward, I’ll be your wingwoman and do everything I can for you two to end up together.”

“Wait, you don’t have to-“

“Please. I’m not the type to feel left out.” she insisted. “How about this- we’ll go to a movie together sometime next week and I’ll weasel my way out of there so you two can be alone.”

“Uhh… what am I supposed to do when you leave?”

Ryujin sighed and patted his chest.

“Do whatever your heart tells you.”

 

\- - -

 

“Sis, we eatin’ good tonight!!”

Lia looked up from her phone, to see her brother dumping a plastic bag full of boxed lunches and juice boxes onto their table.

“Yeonjun, what the hell?”

“You were right, there are benefits to leading guys on.” he sat down and sifted around the boxes, trying to decide which one to open. “Go ahead, pick any one- there’s bound to be more tomorrow!”

“You do realize that those guys are gonna be expecting you to do something in return, right?”

“What, like breathe in their general direction or something?” he raised an eyebrow. “It’s fine, they probably want something stupid anyways.”

“Yeonjun, if you get in trouble one day with the guys you’re fooling around with, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” she rolled her eyes, grabbing one of the juice boxes and poking the straw into the hole. “From what I’ve seen, those guys get freaking WILD when a new person of interest shows up. Especially if it’s a new girl.”

“Well doesn’t that mean my plan is going accordingly?” Yeonjun asked, mixing together a omelette rice dish that was shaped into a heart.

“I thought your plan was to ‘lay low’ and get Ryujin to fall in love with you behind the scenes.” Lia pointed out, noticing the face her brother pulled as she spoke the truth.

“…That part is in progress.”

Excuses, excuses..

“Seems to me you’re just having way too much fun with your new admirers.” Lia smirked.

“It’s not like you’re not having fun either!” Yeonjun pointed his chopsticks at her. “You’ve been parading me around nonstop ever since Yeonwoo got hot..”

“That’s because hot Yeonwoo was MY creation.” she pointed to herself. “Your version of Yeonwoo looked like she was on crack… but somehow that artist that hangs out with Ryujin was still so taken with her?”

“Are you talking about Soobin?” Yeonjun looked up from his meal. “That kid’s a weirdo… who knows what his tastes are.”

“Well, obviously YOU.” Lia wiggled her eyebrows. “Would Yeonwoo approve? I think he’d be pretty cute without his glasses. And he’s tall too.”

“Look, the only one that both Yeonwoo and Yeonjun want is Ryujin.” he clarified, not knowing why Soobin’s face suddenly took over his thoughts.

 

\- - -

 

“Good morning, my shining godde- oof!!!”

Yeonjun slid his backpack off his shoulders and threw it into Wooseok’s arms in one swift motion, not even looking behind him or caring that he might’ve hit him in the face.

“Be a dear and put my bag away for me. I’m going to find my friends.” he commanded, waving his hand. He suddenly stopped in his daily walk down the hallway and turned around, grabbing the other’s shirt and pulling him.

“I-I need to make up a test-“ he answered meekly, his head peeking over the huge backpack he held.

“Ugh, you’re no help.” Yeonjun made a face and snatched back his backpack, holding it up in the middle of the crowded hallway. “Any volunteers?”

He tossed it to some group of guys whose hands shot up in a millisecond, turning his back on them as they fought over who won custody of the bag.

“Oh, and one more thing..” he announced, spinning back around and catching the attention of the mob with a sweet smile. “If I find out that ANY of you do something perverted and try to go through my stuff- _I’ll end you~!_ ♡”

 

\- - -

 

The funny thing was that in the time that ‘Yeonwoo’ existed, Yeonjun had never stepped foot inside the girl’s bathroom.

He was an asshole, not a pervert!

But when he greeted Ryujin that morning and she insisted that he go to the bathroom with her to “spot check”, whatever the hell that meant.

“You know, I’ve never seen you use the bathroom since you’ve gotten here.” she brought up, arousing panic in Yeonjun.

“I usually go… before and after school.”

“Don’t you ever have to reapply your makeup?” she asked, holding the bathroom door open for him.

“Not really..?” he shivered at the fear every morning that Lia would blind him with one of her brushes. While having makeup that never came off was a dream for most girls, scrubbing all of the stuff off at the end of the day was a new chore for him, as Lia looked on in amusement. Usually he ended up going to bed with a very raw, very red face before waking up and repeating the entire process the next day.

Yeonjun sucked in his breath a little as the door to the bathroom closed behind him, and he was immediately hit with the scent of various perfumes.

Girls were coming in and out of the stalls every second, and there was a whole line of them in front of the mirror, making it quite difficult for him and Ryujin to get through.

This was an entirely different world- there were little to no people in the boy’s bathroom in the morning because everyone was in the hallway updating each other on their most recent flings, copying homework, or selling stuff under the table- anything ranging from Pokémon cards to iPhones.

Like the hallways, the girl’s bathroom was an absolute jungle.

“Look, there’s an open space!” she pointed out, watching two girls finish powdering their faces and head towards the door. “Let’s get it, Yeonwoo!!”

She pulled him to run towards the open space, letting out a cry of protest when two girls stepped into the spot. And those happened to be Yuna and one of her minions.

“Oopsies~ My bad.” Yuna mocked, Yeonjun looking at her with a look of mild shock.

‘That was MY line!!’

“It’s okay.” Ryujin tugged him into the corner of the bathroom, then raised her voice ever-so-slightly to say, “Let’s give our mirror space to the.. less fortunate.” she made a circular motion around her face and made direct eye contact when Yuna turned around, who was so offended that she dropped her mascara wand and dropped to the ground screaming in agony as she cradled the dirtied brush.

Yep. Definitely a jungle.

“THAT WAS YVES SAINT LAURENT MASCARA, YOU BIT-“

“Anyways~” Ryujin ignored from the girls gathering around Yuna in a protective huddle, proceeding to turn around and stick out her bottom slightly to Yeonjun, whose eyes were widening by the second. “Yeonwoo, am I good?”

“Uh….?” he stood there with his hands up, confused but mildly enjoying it. He bit down on his lip as Ryujin stayed in that position, waiting for an answer. “….Good for what… exactly?”

“I got Mother Nature’s gift yesterday. Usually the second day is the worst for me.” she explained, not moving. “Am I good?”

Mother Nature??

Second day???

Yeonjun glanced at the back of her skirt, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. But he didn’t know what he was supposed to be looking for in the first place.

“You’re good!” he finally answered, even giving Ryujin a thumbs up.

“Thank god..” she sighed, standing up straight again. “Oh? Yeonwoo, do you want to fix your lip tint before we leave? It’s looking kind of patchy.”

Oops, maybe he shouldn’t have bit down on his lips so much.

Yeonjun glanced over to the mirror, which was now dominated by most of Yuna’s group.

“I think I’m good.” he started towards the door.

“If you have the product with you, I’ll do it for you if you want!” Ryujin offered.

Another opportunity for Ryujin to touch him?

Sign him up ASAP.

He handed her the tiny bottle Lia absolutely insisted he should keep in his cardigan, and bent down a bit so that she could reach his face.

He could feel his breathing slow and heartbeat quicken when she held him by his chin with the softest of touches, and started painting the product onto his lips, taking her time to make sure she wouldn’t smudge.

It sure wasn’t how he envisioned getting close to her, but at least it was SOMETHING.

Up close, he noticed that she barely wore any makeup- maybe some shading by her nose, light mascara, and some lip balm, but nothing like the minions lined up by the mirrors.

Of course she was a natural beauty, she was his angel on earth, after all.

“Rub your lips together.” Ryujin mimicked the motion, with Yeonjun repeating it himself. “So cute!!”

‘YOU’RE the cute one!!!’ he screamed internally.

 

\- - -

 

He spent the rest of the day repeatedly touching where Ryujin hands were this morning, reminding himself that it ACTUALLY happened.

He wished that he could run and tell his old group what happened and for them to give him back slaps and high fives like old times, but he couldn’t.

Not as long as he looked the way he did.

The closest interaction he had gotten to someone in his old crew was when he caught sight of Woojin trying to grab at his backpack this morning.

Oh, how he wished he could corner him and say something like “Thank god no girls look like me, huh?” to poke fun at him.

Yeonjun saw the five of them walk past the classroom just as he was getting his bag out of his locker. There was another plastic bag full of lunch boxes, along with some folded notes he could only assume were love notes for ‘Yeonwoo’.

He tossed the papers into the trash can as he left, and made sure to leave some distance between him and his group, but not too far so that he could still hear their conversation.

“Yeonjun’s sister… what do you think of her?” Woojin asked the group.

“The tallest girl I’ve seen by far.” Mark immediately pointed out. “She’s almost the same height as her brother, I think..”

“What the hell did they feed her across the world?” Jihoon asked, his eyebrows furrowed. “I know Americans are known for being big, but I thought they meant horizontally, not vertically…?”

“She’s got nice legs though.” Lucas chimed in. “Would love to see more of her figure under that innocent-looking cardigan, you know what I mean?”

‘Ew no, Lucas, no one else knows what you mean…’ Yeonjun’s face contorted into one of disgust.

“You guys notice that she looks A LOT like her brother?” Mark spoke up. “Like, a lot more than Lia.”

“Not to mention.. she has the same ability as her brother to get people to like her.” Jihoon listed.

“Guys, why are we talking so much about Yeonwoo?” Woojin finally spoke, standing towards the back to the group. “There’s plenty of other girls..”

“Hey, don’t think we didn’t see you this morning, you liar!!” Lucas stopped walking, pointing his finger in Woojin’s face. “You were desperate for her backpack!”

“I-I was just being nice, because she’s in OUR homeroom, after all!” Woojin tried to defend himself, his face becoming visibly red. “And Yeonjun probably expects us to be taking care of her, wherever he is!!”

‘Aww, Woojin. You’re my best bro.'

“Yeonwoo and Woojin, sitting in a tree~” Lucas began to sing, poking Woojin in the stomach after every syllable. “F-U-C-K-I-!”

Woojin grabbed the older and covered his mouth with his hand.

“Shhhh!!! What if she’s around?!”

“Good luck getting THAT, Woojin.” Mark laughed. “You can barely land one of Yuna’s minions, how are you going to-“

“Excuse me.”

All five of their heads whipped around, to see ‘Yeonwoo’ standing there behind them, phone held in ‘her’ oversized sweater paws.

“Can any of you tell me where the outdoor garden is?”

Lucas pushed himself to the front, leaning his elbow against the wall and cracking a smirk.

“Well, it just HAPPENS to be right down the hall.” he began, wiggling his eyebrows. “But if you happen to want a snake in YOUR garden, I can-“

“I was actually asking the *cute* one.” Yeonjun interrupted midway, looking directly at Woojin, who pointed to himself.

“M-Me?”

“Who else?”

“Right down the hall, t-to the right.” he pointed, his eyes not leaving Yeonjun.

“Thank you so much, I’m so lost!” Yeonjun feigned ignorance, patting Woojin's cheek as he walked past, before leaning up to whisper in his ear, “You can find someone better than me, trust me.’

Yeonjun could hear his group immediately start whisper-yelling out of excitement after he turned the corner and found himself outside.

‘Idiots.’ he thought, shading his eyes with his arm and trying to find a place he could stay while he waited for Lia to finish one of her clubs.

Then he saw him.

Soobin sitting across from the huge cherry blossom tree, his back hunched and his head looking down. Probably at another sketch pad.

More images of his face started flashing again in Yeonjun’s mind for no reason. He shook it off and shrugged, deciding to interact with the guy to kill time. He seemed harmless. And Yeonjun was sure he would be better off talking to him than remaining anti-social.

Soobin was, in fact, so into his sketch that he didn’t notice Yeonwoo make her way over and sit on the bench under the branches of the tree, directly across from him.

“Hey. You.” Yeonjun called out.

The artist could have had a heart attack right there, because the sudden voice caused him to jump and send his sketchpad and pencil into the air, some of the pages in the pad flying out.

‘Jeez, how jumpy IS this kid?’ Yeonjun thought to himself, reaching down and picking up Soobin’s sketchbook from the grass. He noticed the near-hyperrealistic sketch of the tree he was sitting under on the page that came off and held it up, saying, “You drew this?!”. He cleared his throat, trying to keep his cool as he added, “This is…. really good.."

Soobin snatched his pencil and the loose pages from the ground and muttered, “Thanks” before actually looking up and seeing who had complimented his art.

He wasn’t sure if he was going to explode or implode.

His muse.

In the flesh.

Less than 5 feet away from him.

He couldn’t help but notice the amazed look in Yeonwoo’s large, innocent eyes as she gazed at the work.

‘Cute……’ he thought.

Yeonjun held out the sketchpad to Soobin.

“Sorry, I might have caused some of the pages to fall out..” he apologized. “I can get a new one.”

“I-I-It’s fine.” Soobin got out.

“Is it okay if I just hang out here while you continue drawing?” Yeonjun asked, pointing to his original seat. “It’ll only be for a while.”

‘Stupid, WHY are you asking this nerd? Act like you own the seat!!’ his mind screamed.

“O-Okay.” Soobin answered, trying to adjust his glasses with a shaky hand and poising his pencil over the picture he had been working on. He managed to stop his hand from shaking so much and continue shading the last branch he was on, but he couldn’t help glancing back at Yeonwoo and thinking how pretty she looked with the stray petals falling on top of her hair and her shoulders. He quietly flipped to a new page in the sketchbook and began sketching her, making sure that she didn’t notice him doing what he just did.

On the other hand, Yeonjun tried to start some of his homework, using his notebook as a desk in his lap. But he just couldn’t focus with the very soft, rapid sounds of pencil against sketch paper in the background.

‘This annoying art kid…’

“Excuse me, can you-“ he started, looking up and seeing Soobin quickly look away and down at his sketch pad. Yeonjun thought he saw this happen multiple times before, but he thought his eyes and mind were just playing tricks on him. “Um… are you drawing me?”

Soobin buried his face even deeper in his work, partially scared by what his muse might do to him, judging from how she treated all of the other guys that even looked at her the wrong way.

“I’msorryIwon’tdoitaga-"

“I mean… you can if you want to.”

‘Yeonjun, what the HELL?!’ half of his mind yelled. He wasn’t sure why he said this either, but nothing was jabbing at him to refuse. After all, he was just helping the “less fortunate”….. right?

“How should I pose..?” he asked, switching around how he sat.

Soobin hesitated for a few seconds, before standing up and walking over to Yeonwoo, his hands outstretched.

“…M-May.. I?”

A single nod prompted him to adjust his muse’s shoulders, her arm, and brush some of her hair back.

He swore, his face burned more and more with every movement he did.

Soobin thought about it, and then reached under Yeonwoo’s chin to gently tilt her head up to face him.

Until they were looking straight into each other’s eyes.

Soobin watched as she blinked twice, her lashes fluttering with every small movement. He watched as his muse pressed her lips into a straight line and how her cheeks faded into a lovely shade of pink quite similar to the blossoms scattered in her hair.

He was completely, totally, utterly, definitely in love.

Breath slowing, heartbeat quickening, Yeonjun slowly realized that these were the same symptoms… when he was with Ryujin? He could feel his cheeks and ears get hotter and hotter with each passing second he was looking into Soobin’s face, until he pushed him off, grabbed his bag, and stood up.

“I’m going to find my sister.” he declared, before trying his hardest not to sprint back into the building.

Soobin watched her run from his place on the ground, as the wind picked up and blew the off the petals from the bench and into his mess of hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UWU


	7. sevun

Several hours after his interaction with the artist, Yeonjun could still feel a slight burning sensation in the spot where Soobin had touched him.

He couldn’t stop brushing his fingers against the spot every few minutes either.

He didn’t get it though. The same exact same thing happened with Ryujin earlier in the day- same motions, same timing, and he even had the same bodily reaction- so why was the same event but with Soobin on replay?

He was nothing to him but some awkward nerd before..

“Yeonjun, why do you keep touching your chin?” Lia asked him that night, as she was doing her work on her laptop. “Do you need to shave or something?”

“No…”

She noticed the faraway look in his eyes, and his lack of a proper response.

“Hey.” she crumbled up a piece of paper and threw it at her brother, hitting him right in the head.

“Hey!!” he complained, throwing the ball back at Lia, who expertly dodged. “You’re annoying, what do you want?”

“What the hell happened when you were waiting for me after school?” Lia immediately sensed something wrong. “It couldn’t have been Ryujin- she went directly home after, I saw her.”

Well, his prepared lie that Ryujin had done something was now destroyed.

“Then what happened? Why are you so quiet tonight and not bolstering about one of Yeonwoo’s new man hoes?”

“It’s nothing, I swear!” he snapped, grabbing one of the pillows on his bed and hugging it as he pulled the covers over his head. More flashes of Soobin’s face, with the breeze blowing tiny pink petals around the two of them filled his vision and mind. He swore that if he was just a little closer to him, the two of them could have…

Fuck, he shouldn’t be thinking about this.

Ryujin was the goal.

_ Ryujin _ .

“Yeonjun-“

“Go back to your room.” he simply commanded. “I just need to think about someone.. I MEAN SOMETHING.”

“…Fine, princess.” Lia grumbled, shutting her laptop and tucking it under her arm, giving one last look at the lump on her brother’s bed before leaving. “Good night, Yeonjun.”

A few miles away, Soobin sat straight up in his bed, trying to remember the exact events that happened

His days usually weren’t as eventful as today. But the fact that Yeonwoo even showed up, on her own free will, in front of him- to INTERACT with him- was a sign that the heavens were finally smiling down on him. He was also grateful that it was a positive reaction- seeing how Yeonwoo could easily physically and figuratively push aside any guy that wasn’t up to par with her standards or interests. 

But today he had even managed to TOUCH her.

And she CONSENTED.

He always imagined his first physical contact with his muse to be accidental, like a brush of the hands or something along those lines. But this was already a step above.

Probably the thing that Soobin still couldn’t believe happened was that he touched her face, and managed to look straight into her eyes.

Straight into her soul.

Although Yeonwoo had made a name for herself in school as the desirable-but-unattainable goddess, her eyes spoke that she still had an innocent soul. To capture this essence was his next goal for his artwork.

Flashes of her faint pink blush as Soobin held her face in his hands came flooding back to him, even tinting his own cheeks a deep red.

Soobin’s head fell back into his pillow, folding his hands nearly and resting them on top of his stomach.

Thank the heavens for today..

 

\- - -

 

Yeonjun didn’t get to school until five minutes before class, which was unlike him. He usually like to drag around the group of male students in hallway before going to his homeroom, but he ran so late that he slid open the classroom door to find the teacher already preparing her papers for the first lessons.

“Choi Yeonwoo, you were about to be late.” she warned. “Please take a seat.”

“Yes, Miss..” he ducked his head in a bow and turned to face the class, where the entire male ratio was looking at him. “What are you all looking at?” he snapped, flipping his hair before sitting down. Immediately everyone looked away and went on with their lives.

Soobin straightened the pencils and pens he spread out on his desk and folded his hands neatly as his muse approached him.

“G-Good morning, Yeonwoo..” he greeted, trying his best not to stutter.

Yeonjun looked behind him as he was getting out his books.

‘Uh, what do I say to him?’

He decided last night that whatever happened yesterday was just the result of one awkward move, and absolutely nothing else. But he was worried the shy artist would react more negatively than he expected. Soobin didn’t seem like the other interested boys- his interest was pure, and driven by art. Which was why even Yeonjun couldn’t treat him like an asshole (or in this case, a bitch).

“Oh.. mornin’.”

‘I got a response!’ Soobin thought.

“So… we’re good, right?” he slowly asked, turning around in his seat to look at Soobin.

“U-Um… what..?”

“You know….. yesterday… outdoor garden..?” Yeonjun tried explaining in the most general terms possible. “That was just an awkward situation, right?”

Soobin’s thoughts were wild.

‘You mean the highest possible gift from the heavens that allowed me to touch the most beautiful creature on this ear-'

“Y-Yeah, j-just an a-awkward situation!!” he nodded so quickly that his glasses started sliding down his nose.

“Okay, that’s good!” Yeonjun also nodded, giving Soobin a little smile before beginning to turn around in his seat again.

“Ahh, but-!” Soobin cried out, his hand reaching towards Yeonwoo’s shoulder. He stopped after she turned to look at him again, and fully withdrew his hand after she looked at it and back at his face again. “C-Can I still draw you sometime?”

His heartbeat starting quickening again for no reason.

Or he thought there was no reason..

‘Yeonjun, you stupid asshole, there’s no reason for you to get all weird over this!’ his mind practically screamed at him.

So his smile widened and he nodded.

‘NO!!’ You can’t draw m-

“Sure, why not?” he answered, facing the blackboard right as Ryujin came bursting through the classroom door.

“SorryteacherIwasrunninglatebecausetherewasthisoldladyonthebusand-“ Ryujin started explaining at lightning speed before she had to stop for a breather.

Their teacher sighed, and signaled for her to sit down.

“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” she said.

Ryujin bounced over to her seat, sliding in and opening her backpack in a fluid motion.

“So what’s up, guys?”

“Nothing.” both Yeonjun and Soobin answered in unison, most of their attention focusing on the lesson introduction by the teacher.

Ryujin noticed that Yeonjun actually had his books out, and Soobin wasn’t trying to sneak a sketch under his math book like usual. Instead, her friend was looking straight ahead, a tiny smile on the edge of his lips.

Okay, something had happened between them- and it seemed like she was going to be the one to give them another push.

 

\- - -

 

“So how would you guys feel about a movie this Friday?” Ryujin asked, standing between her two taller friends. “A bunch of really good ones came out this month!”

Soobin quietly nodded. He liked occasionally stepping out of his studio (also his bedroom).

Also it’d be nice to see his muse in an environment that wasn’t in school.

Another opportunity to be with Ryujin? And out of school too??

“I’d like that!” Yeonjun agreed, looking down at the girl. “I think I have a discount card for popcorn and snacks.. from my brother!”

“I almost completely forgot you had a brother..” Ryujin remembered, her voice suddenly becoming quiet. “How’s he doing, by the way?”

“Yeonjun is.. fine! He’s getting better by the day.” he lied, adding, “He’s.. actually asked me.. how you’re doing?”

“Oh?” Ryujin blinked, eyebrows raised. “I didn’t think he cared.”

“My brother is nicer than most people make him out to be.” Yeonjun continued making his case. “And of course he cares, he even told me about the time you helped him and how he met Soju.”

“Ohh, that.” Ryujin nodded, her lips in a straight line. “Well, you can tell your brother that I’m doing completely fine.”

Yeonjun nodded, looking forward.

At least this was a start.

“So, Friday, 5:00, Royal Movie Theater.” Ryujin switched the subject again, starting to put her plan in action. “I’ll make a group chat for all of us to confirm anything else.”

Both Yeonjun and Soobin prayed for Friday to come quickly, but for completely different reasons.

 

\- - -

 

Friday had started out perfectly, according to Yeonjun’s plan.

He had found Ryujin more quickly than usual in the morning, and there were more than enough guys that offered to take his bag and belongings to his locker for him. There was even some mirror space in the bathroom, so that became another bonus.

Wooseok didn’t pull anything stupid, and his lunch was mainly undisturbed.

He didn’t fall asleep during any of the lectures, and Ryujin had given him one of her cute cat-printed pens and a wet wipe and his only pen exploded on him.

Before they met up with Soobin to walk to the movie theater, Ryujin fixed his makeup for him (Lia would have been proud of her ‘sister), which resulted in more face touching and warm feelings he openly welcomed.

Everything was going great, and even the walk to the theater was fun, as he and Ryujin cracked some jokes about Wooseok, Yuna, and some of the teachers from school.

“Did Yuna ever get a new mascara? You know, the one we ruined for her last time?” Yeonjun asked.

“She did. But this time it’s from a slightly cheaper brand.” Ryujin mused. “But knowing her, she’s probably raging at her daddy that she simply CANNOT have anything lower than Armani foundation and YSL mascara.”

“The only thing that’s going to fix her ‘less fortunate’ face is surgery.” Yeonjun lowered his voice and half-whispered his comment.

“But it doesn’t matter how expensive her makeup is or how much surgery she wants to get, any amount of money isn’t going to fix her personality.” Ryujin concluded. “My mom always used to say, ‘There are no *ugly* girls in the world- only the lazy ones and the hopeless ones.”

“And we both know which one Yuna is.”

The two of them laughed as they strolled down the street with linked arms. Soobin wasn’t too far behind.

Although being this close to his muse without making her feel uncomfortable was already a blessing, he couldn’t help but think to Ryujin’s words about ‘weaseling’ her way out of a movie to leave him and Yeonwoo alone. Was that plan going to go through today? Would he actually have a chance to be alone with his muse?

‘Ryujin.. hopefully your plan works..’ he thought, observing the setting sun’s light bounce off his muse’s strong profile every time she turned next to her to face Ryujin.

“Oh, we’re here already!” Ryujin pointed up at the building. “Soobin, come on!!”

Ryujin had went to go buy tickets for the three of them, and had assigned the other two to snack duty. Soobin stood beside his muse, and took each snack she bought into his arms until it seemed like his arms couldn’t take anymore.

“Um.. maybe I should take something?” Yeonjun asked, watching as the other juggled an extra large tub of popcorn, a large soda, a bottle of water, as well as two boxes of candy.

“N-No, this is fine for me!!” he attempted a smile, even though Yeonjun could barely see his face over the stack of food. Yeonjun took the popcorn and one of the candy boxes out of his hand anyway, making the artist breathe a little easier.

“I have our tickets~”

The three of them found and settled in seats pretty close to the screen and towards the middle, another ideal to add to Yeonjun’s itinerary. From left to right, it was Ryujin, Yeonjun, and then Soobin.

Soobin tried making eye contact with Ryujin sometime throughout this entire process to somehow ask her if the plan was happening today, but her attention was mainly stolen by Yeonwoo. This game of trying to find his answer continued through all of the commercials and trailers, and his anxiety also increased with every passing second. What was he supposed to do if this thing actually happened?

“Please be seated, the movie will begin momentarily.” the announcer boomed through the speakers.

That was Ryujin’s cue.

“Oh, I think I just need to run to the bathroom really quickly.” she interrupted the middle of her and Yeonjun’s conversation with the sentence.

“Now? But.. the movie is starting.” Yeonjun noticed the screen turning black. “Are you okay, though? Do you want me to come wi-“

“No!!” Ryujin interrupted again. “I mean, I’ll be in and out in no time, don’t worry about me!”

Yeonjun watched as his angel scooted her way through some people, and ran out of the theater as if there was some emergency.

‘Maybe I should have went with her anyway..’

A sudden deep tone from the movie screen jolted him out of his worry for Ryujin and forced his attention towards the screen. As the movie title appeared on the screen, some of the letters splattered in blood, his stomach dropped a little.

Only a LITTLE.

He hadn’t asked Ryujin what movie they were seeing because he wanted to let her be happy and make all of the plans, but now that he was sitting in a theater for a HORROR movie..

He instantly regretted not asking.

Yeonjun glanced over at Soobin, who seemed completely unfazed by the threatening title. Bored, even.

It was a shame, because his perfect plan involved them seeing a comedy or even an intense action movie, to which he could tell Ryujin that she could hide in his shoulder if any of the scenes were too *intense* for his angel.

But there was nothing he could do now.

It wasn’t that he was SCARED of horror movies.. it was just the idea that freaked him out… probably?

On the other end of the spectrum, Soobin had probably seen every tacky horror movie that existed, since his artistic background required him to study all forms of media- even films that he was sure wasted their production money on gore and jump scares rather than focusing on the actual storyline.

He saw the modern movie making business was an utter mess- which was why he never wanted to get involved.

A quick look to his right, and he saw Yeonwoo with her eyes wide with terror, and her hands gripping the arm rests.

Oh, how he wished he could just pull her to him and tell her it was all going to be okay.

Every few minutes, he would glance over at her and see that she would slide down in her seat more and more.

“What going on with her?” one of the actors in the movie asked, pointing at the writhing figure on the floor of the train. Sure enough, after a painfully long buildup, the camera suddenly zoomed in onto the figure's face, and yep- it was a zombie, complete with cloudy eyes and bloody teeth gnashing at the audience.

Now there were a couple of yelps from the other audience members, but nothing could compare to what Soobin heard from his muse.

Yeonjun literally SQUEALED in fear.

Soobin looked on in surprise, wondering how that kind of sound came out of Yeonwoo, who was usually so cool and nonchalant about almost everything.

Another zombie appeared, clawing at the main actor and his daughter, and Yeonwoo threw the bucket of popcorn in the air in fear and dove straight into his arms.

 

**Straight.**

 

**Into.**

 

**His.**

 

**Arms.**

 

Yeonjun buried his face into the crook between Soobin’s torso and arm, squeezing his eyes shut and not caring that the popcorn shower earned several complaints from the other moviegoers. He didn’t care that it was the nerd’s shoulder he was burying his face into. All he wanted was to get away from those creepy, way-too-fast, way-too-realistic zombies on the huge screen in front of him. Since when did Korea have the technology or knowledge to make a movie this realistic-looking??

The entire scene happened in slow motion for Soobin, even the popcorn rained down like large flakes of snow when he found himself being squeezed by the woman of his dreams. Soobin, out of nowhere, slowly brought his arm around Yeonwoo’s shoulders and pulled the shaking figure closer. A sudden protective instinct overwhelmed him just then.

“Oh look, you made the first snowfall happen in a movie theater..” Soobin picked a popcorn kernel out of his muse’s hair and tossed it to the ground, trying to crack a joke in the gentlest tone to lessen the other’s fear. He was amazed that he didn’t stutter even once when he said this.

‘So this is what Ryujin meant by ‘Do what your heart says’….’

Soobin saw the fear in Yeonwoo’s eyes subside a bit. Despite his stuttering disappearing, his heart still picked up its pace when she blinked up at him, just like she did in the garden.

‘Really cute…..!!!!'

He noticed that through the duration of the movie, Yeonwoo would peek out from his shoulder every few minutes during the more quiet scenes, only to get spooked at another jump scare or simple appearance of a zombie. But her arms never left him.

“Why are they so fast?!”

“They’re making that sound again, I don’t like that sound!!!”

“I want to leave…”

“I don’t want to see this part!!”

Those were just a few of her (very loud) comments throughout the film.

Yeonjun felt like he had been holding his breath for an entire year when the credits finally started rolling. But when the lights in the theater went out, he looked around frantically, with this underlying fear that one of the zombies from the movie would pop out and grab him at any second.

But then someone grabbed his hand and pulled him down the stairs and through the hallway, into blinding light.

Yeonjun rubbed his eyes, still slightly teary from the brief period he cried during the movie, before noticing that he was still holding onto the other person’s hand, whoever it was. Following his line of vision, he saw the white school uniform shirt, and same face that made his heart rate race as fast as Ryujin did.

He dropped his hand like hot rocks.

“Soobin, I-“

“You seemed pretty scared, so..”

“I was NOT scar- AH!!” one of the theater staff members popped up next to him, in full zombie costume, prompting him to run back into Soobin’s arms and hide his face in his shoulder.

“It’s okay, they’re not scary..” Soobin petted his muse’s head, trying to suppress his overwhelming happiness. He looked up to the theater’s ceiling, mouthing a “Thank you” for good measure.

Ryujin came around the corner, coming out from another theater showing the same movie.

As soon as she saw the sight of her two friends before her, she sprinted behind Yeonjun to give the artist a solid high five.

“Score!!” she pumped her fist.

 

\- - -

 

He wanted to punch himself.

Or run straight into a brick wall.

Or have someone hit him with a bat.

No, he just wanted to disappear completely.

Yeonjun smacked himself in the face, still not believing he pulled that huge scene at the theater.

He couldn’t believe he squealed that loudly in front of more than two hundred people.

He couldn’t believe he couldn’t handle a simple zombie movie.

And worst of all, he couldn’t believe that he ended up in that nerd’s arms.

He could already feel his cheeks warming again when he thought back to wrapping his arms around the guy and squeezing the life out of him.

‘Yeonjun, where has your pride gone…’ he asked himself. ‘You used to be the coolest guy in your school!’

“Maybe.. I should thank him..?” he thought aloud, his phone in his hand.

‘For what??’ his conscious demanded. ‘For proving that you’re a pansy?!’

He clicked to his group chat with Ryujin and Soobin, opening a new chatroom with only the artist in it.

To ➡️ Art Nerd: hey, it’s Yeonwoo. thanks for today, but i really wasn’t scared..

No… I already said and disproved that..

To ➡️ Art Nerd: hey, it’s me. just wanted to let you know that you were really sweet to..

Ew, too sappy.

To ➡️ Art Nerd: thanks for today. :)

Okay.. that would probably work without the smiley face.

As he went to hit the backspace button- he wasn’t sure if this was on purpose- he hit send.

“ShitshitshitshitshitshitshitSHIT!!!” he panicked, before staring at his screen one more time and tossing his phone under his pillow, making sure it was on silent. “Stupid art nerd.” he spat, the tips of his ears burning as he pulled the covers up to his face.

 

\- - -

 

A few miles away, Soobin came out of his bathroom to a chime on his phone.

'Probably another congratulatory message from Ryujin..’

But when he saw the single flower symbol he used for Yeonwoo’s contact info on his screen, he almost dropped his phone.

From .Y: thanks for today. :)

He dropped to his knees, lulling his head back and mouthing yet another thanks to the heavens.


	8. AYYYYYYight

Honestly, Lia was a bit worried about her brother.

He hadn’t said a word to her ever since he got back home from the movies, and he was mostly silent during their morning routine too. Yeonjun had been carefully monitoring his phone throughout all of this though, and he checked it almost every other minute.

“Can you stop looking at your phone for one second?” Lia asked, throwing down the eyeliner in her hand out of frustration. “What the hell is so important that you have to check it so often?”

“Nothing.” Yeonjun answered, his eyes still glued to the screen. His phone chimed, but his smile turned back into a frown when he saw that it was just some junk mail.

Ten hours and still no response from Soobin.

Was the nerd TRYING to drive him crazy?

“I get that you’re always trying to wait for Ryujin’s messages, but-“

“It’s not Ryujin!” he sighed, covering his mouth right after.

‘Why the hell did you tell her??!’

Lia raised her eyebrows, suddenly becoming interested.

“If it’s not your angel, then who…. oh~” she suddenly tilted her head down and side-eyed her brother. “Is it that cute artist that always hangs around you two? Soobin, wasn’t it?”

“N-No!!” he shook his head, only to be stopped by Lia grabbing him by the cheeks.

“Alright, alright, you can stalk your messages AFTER I finish your liner.” she commanded. Lia didn’t need to keep poking and prodding at the subject because she knew Yeonjun would eventually come crawling to her with his incessant whining and questions if something really happened with Soobin.

After all, her brother had a personality that was scarily similar to some of her most sensitive girl friends.

Also, seeing the more flustered and even, innocent side of her normally headstrong and nonchalant asshole of a brother was highly amusing.

Yeonjun could barely get his uniform on in time because he kept running back to his phone every time there was a beep, buzz, or chime. Lia basically had to drag him out of the house and onto the street, where he still managed to not walk into any poles or trash cans while looking down.

‘I thought he liked me..’ a tiny part of his mind thought, while the other half was trying to dominate by saying things like ‘Why do you care of that nerd is interested? Even if he was, he likes Yeonwoo, not Yeonjun.’

‘Well, Ryujin is friends with Yeonwoo, not Yeonjun, too.’

…..Shit.

“You’re gonna run into something.” Lia warned.

“Haven’t done it yet.” he answered.

“If you keep using your phone, it’s gonna be dead by second period.”

“I brought my portable charger.”

“The more you look at it, the less likely he’s going to text back.”

“Oh please, he-“

“SO IT *IS* A HE.” Lia jumped in front of him, pointing her finger straight in his face.

“I-I MEANT SHE!” Yeonjun tried correcting himself. “I’m not gay, Lia!!"

“Aww, ‘Yeonwoo’ is texting a boy~” his sister jumping up and down repeatedly. “So is it that Soobin kid? If not, is he cute? Second or third year?”

“You’re annoying. I’m not telling you anything.” Yeonjun made a zipping motion with his fingers, tossing the “key” behind him. He speed walked past his sister, taking long strides so she wouldn’t be able to catch up if she didn’t run.

“Tell me~” she jogged up next to him.

No answer.

“Come on, it’s not like I’ll tell anyone.”

No answer.

“I could even help you with this!”

No answer.

“Yah. Answer me, asshole.” she dropped her nice act as they turned into the school gates.

Yeonjun finally turned to Lia, giving her a simple scoff and flipping his hair as he looked ahead to his gathering followers.

“Did you just-?!” Lia stopped in her tracks, her mouth hanging open.

Her brother did NOT just scoff and flip his hair in her face.

She was HIS creator!!

She could see him put on his gross act of smiling at the boys in the yard, so she went up behind him, strategically grabbed the hem of his skirt, and threw her arm up.

Let’s just say there was more than enough wind to do the rest of the job.

It took Yeonjun half a second to realize what had just happened, and Lia could see a blush spread from his cheeks all the way down to his ears and his neck.

“Oh, Junnie~ It’s striped today!” Lia covered her mouth with her hand, pretending to be surprised. She grabbed her brother by the tie, leaned in and whispered, “Try ignoring me again, asshole.”

Yeonjun bent his knees and fumbled with his skirt, holding both the front and the back down as he felt several eyes on him.

Someone wolf whistled.

“Lia, you-!!”

“Junnie, are you okay?” she tilted her head mockingly. “You look kind of red.”

“I… need some air.” he said, before essentially sprinting into the building.

‘Oh, that little brat is going to GET IT when all of this is over.’ was thought that filled his head.

When all of this is over…

It had already passed a week, he realized.

He managed to bring up the topic of his original identity to Ryujin, but still had a long way to go before she would fall in love with Yeonjun. In fact, he was making more progress in ‘Yeonwoo’s’ relationship with Soobin instead.

He needed to rethink his plan.

Yeonjun took the narrowing stairway up to the roof, where he hoped he could clear his mind and decide his next course of action.

“I actually haven’t been to the roof for the time I’ve been in this school..” he noticed, pushing open the heavy door to go outside. He was hit in the face by the sharp wind, and by flashbacks of what just happened in the yard, so he made sure to keep a hand out to prevent his skirt from flying up again. Not that there was someone on the roof with him…

Then he saw an ill-fitting uniform, messy hair, and glasses.

“You!!”

Soobin looked up, panicking that someone had found his private space. If it was one of the jocks, he quickly calculated how long it would take to punch them in the stomach, grab his bag and pencils, and run away.

But when that person grabbed him by the collar, pulled him away from the edge of the roof, and pull him down to the ground, he was pleasantly surprised to see his muse standing on the ledge, looking down at him.

“Yeonwoo?” he asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Why didn’t you text me back last night!?” Yeonjun had completely lost his cool, and completely forgot that he shouldn’t be caring what this art nerd had to say back.

But he did and he absolutely hated himself for it.

“Oh, my phone died..” Soobin said, sitting himself up and brushing the dust off his uniform. He had stared at Yeonwoo’s message last night for so long, making sure it was real, that he dropped his phone on his face and simply fell asleep after that, his phone remaining on the entire night. By the time he woke up and knew what to say, all of the battery life had been drained.

“Oh.” Yeonjun’s stance immediately relaxed. “W-Well, you could’ve texted me back this morning…” he found the bricks on the ground awfully interesting then, tracing it with his foot.

What the hell was he doing?

Why was everything that happened at the movies replaying in his mind again?

“Thanks again….. for what you did at the movies……” he pursed his lips and shuffled around on the ledge, sticking one of his legs out over the edge to distract himself from eh very words he was saying.

“It really was nothing..” Soobin answered, when he really wanted to say “I would do anything for you, my muse!”. He stepped a bit closer to the ledge, with a fear that a wrong step could end badly for Yeonwoo.

“We-We’re still friends, though.” Yeonjun added, playing with his fingers.

“Of course.” Soobin nodded, stretching out his hand. “Yeonwoo, I don’t think you should be that close to the edge- it’s pretty windy and-“

“I’m fine.” he stressed the last word. “Don’t think of us as any more than friends.” It somewhat pained him to say that, but he suppressed that little voice and stood there, looking at Soobin with the straightest face he could muster. “You got it?”

“Got it.”

The wind picked up its pace, and hit Yeonjun with a strong gust that would’ve sent him back flailing his arms.

If Soobin didn’t reach forward that instant and pull him in.

Yeonjun felt himself being pulled off the ledge, and he found himself buried in Soobin’s shoulder once again. He wasn’t sure if his heart was racing from his short brush with death, or the fact that the artist had done something that made him think those thoughts again. The thoughts that drove him crazy and left him confused and… longing for more.

“I warned you to be careful..” Soobin spoke, holding Yeonwoo by her shoulders as he stared straight into her enlarged eyes. “Are you okay?”

Yeonjun could barely speak, because his eyes were flickering back and forth between Soobin’s eyes and lips.

‘He really does have good features…’ he thought.

Soobin mistook the silent observance as fear, so he hesitated a bit before reaching up and petting Yeonwoo’s hair. He still held one of her hands, so he laced his fingers in hers and squeezed it as a sign of reassurance.

“You’re fine now. You’re not in a dangerous spot anymore.” he comforted. Yeonjun’s mind gave him both the sudden urge to hug the artist again, but also the urge to push him away and utter out a string of curses.

The first school bell rang, and Soobin looked at his watch before proceeding to brush stray hairs out of his muse's face, only exposing more of her blush.

“If you feel okay now, we should go to class.” he said in the gentlest voice Yeonjun had ever heard. It was dripping with genuine concern and kindness, a thousand times more than any girl that put on a nice act for him.

It was something that Yeonjun needed to hear.

Something he wanted to continue hearing.

He simply nodded at Soobin’s question, and let himself be led to class with the other not showing any signs of letting his hand go soon.

Yeonjun raised his other sleeve-covered arm to cover his reddening face, even though he was sure no one else was watching.

 

\- - -

 

Ryujin had asked Yeonjun if he wanted to grab some lunch with her after school, and the joy he experienced gave him some reassurance that he didn’t lose his feelings for her.

Not that he would have any reason to…. right?

“What do you recommend from around here? I haven’t had much time to explore the good places.” Ryujin asked him as they were walking away from school. She was hanging off of Yeonjun’s arm and looking around like an excited little bunny, which he found painfully adorable. No one had any idea how much he just wanted to hug her and protect her from the dangers of the world.

Not that he thought she couldn’t handle everything on her own already.

“Oh, there’s this place-“

“Wait, I forgot that you’re even newer than me.” Ryujin shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. “I guess we’re just gonna be two lost girls wandering around the streets then.”

He saw an opportunity.

“Actually.. my brother told me where all the good spots are.” he spoke up, inserting his original self into the conversation. "Do you prefer something cold or hot?”

“Definitely hot!”

Yeonjun reached down and held Ryujin’s hand, pulling the smaller girl close behind him as he weaved his way through the streets. He was smiling so much that his cheeks were starting to feel sore, but he didn’t care. After all, he was out of the house, and running down the streets of the city with his guardian angel, who seemed closer to him than ever before.

But he was doing all of this as Yeonwoo, not Yeonjun.

And there was this gnawing sensation that he had while all of these happy things were happening.

Ryujin’s hands were warm. And she gave him just enough positivity to make him forget that eventually, he would have to stop playing this charade.

But for now, he had everything he wanted.

Or at least, he think he did.

 

\- - -

 

“I’ve missed good stew so much..” Ryujin managed to get out as she scarfed down her bowl of food. Yeonjun was surprised, he was still trying to get through his first. The girl could fit exorbitant amounts of food in her seemingly tiny body.

If they ended up together… no, WHEN they ended up together, he promised himself that he would buy his angel as much food as her little heart desired.

“I didn’t know China had soft tofu stew.”

“Did they have it in America too?” she asked, sitting back in her seat and patting her stomach.

“I don’t know.” he answered, before realizing that his entire backstory was based on him being out of the country up until a few weeks ago. “I-I mean, I think so!! I had it a few times but I ate American food most of the time.”

“What did you eat over there to make you grow so much?” Ryujin wondered. “You’re so tall and slim, I’m so jealous…”

“You’re small and cute though.”

Ryujin gave another one of her killing eye smiles before leaning forward on the table, her head on both of her hands.

“You really think so, Yeonwoo~?” she asked, her voice pitching a bit at the end of her question.

Yeonjun was about to die from her charm as he slowly nodded, swallowing a lump in his throat.

“Oh, you have a piece of tofu stuck here.” Ryujin pointed to the side of her mouth. “Hold still, let me get it for you.”

As Ryujin leaned over the table, he had to bite the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from smiling. So far, she was doing everything he imagined she would do if they were a couple. In a way, his plan was working.

But when he saw the kind, relaxed expression on the person wiping his mouth, Ryujin’s face briefly flashed to someone else’s.

Glasses.

Curly hair.

Soobin?

Yeonjun suddenly jerked back, pressing his back against the leather of the restaurant seat.

“Yeonwoo..?” Ryujin pulled back the hand holding her napkin, holding both hands up in a defensive position. “Are you okay?”

He violently shook his head, before looking up again.

Just Ryujin’s worried expression.

Nothing else.

Thank god.

“I’m fine.” he answered, brushing his bangs out of his face and letting out a huge sigh. He needed to take control of his mind before it got out of hand again. Reminding himself that Ryujin was the only one he wanted was the first thing on his list- he couldn’t let anything, or anyONE take over his thoughts again. He couldn’t just sit around and let everything happen, he needed to actually do something.

Ryujin stood up, rummaging through her purse to look for money before looking up to see Yeonjun hand off the check to their waiter.

“You didn’t have to pay for me!!” Ryujin protested, watching the waiter walk away. “We could’ve paid half and half!”

“My treat.” Yeonjun winked, and looped his arm in hers as he pulled her out of the restaurant and onto the streets. “Do you want to walk around some more before we go home?”

As Ryujin nodded and started towards a skincare shop, Yeonjun finally felt like he was the one in control of his world, especially his feelings. He finally felt like he was protecting her and making her happy, something that he still wasn’t sure he was going to be able to do when he came back as himself.

She bounced in and out of the skincare and makeup shops on the street they were on, ending up using Yeonjun’s hand and wrist as places to test products and swatch colors when she used up all of the space on both of her arms. Yeonjun offered to carry every little bag that she had, and he had even paid for some of the more pricier items, simply swiping his card whilst ignoring Ryujin’s protests that she would pay for her own.

There were benefits to having traveling, well-off parents, after all.

He didn’t really pay attention to the stores they went in and out of, because he really only looked up when he heard the sound of the cash register open.

It was only until she pulled Yeonjun into a clothing store that he started to notice his surroundings.

It wasn’t just a clothing store- Ryujin was heading straight for the sleepwear section. 

The underwear section.

Some of the things on display really weren’t meant to be bought, worn, or even SEEN by high school students. Yeonjun didn’t know why he felt embarrassed to be looking at all of the lace and silk- he had seen plenty of girls take their undergarments off. In fact, he was even willing to go to these types of places with Lia whenever one of her girl friends bailed on her.

Such a good brother he was, right?

Up to this point, he had never imagined Ryujin trying to be wear some of the fashion in the store. And even now, he made sure to keep his thoughts and fantasies about her completely clean. After all, she wasn’t like every other girl he met.

He had been staring in both shock and fascination at one of the string contraptions on display that he didn’t even notice Ryujin asking him a question.

“..….a new one, Yeonwoo?” was what he caught when he finally focused his attention on her. She was holding a nightgown and a pack of underwear, and there was a lady wearing a tape measure around her neck standing next to her. Both of them were looking straight at Yeonjun, waiting for an answer to the question he never heard.

“Um…… yeah….?” he answered, hoping that it was the right answer.

“Great!” the store clerk nodded, before stepping forward and wrapping her tape measure around Yeonjun’s chest with one fluid motion.

He jumped back in fear, attempting to cross his hands over his chest for protection.

“W-What’s going on?” he asked, trying not to panic in his situation.

“You said you needed to get measured for a new bra.” Ryujin explained, tilting her head. “Have you… never gotten measured..?”

“Uhh…” he stuttered. “I never really needed to?”

Which wasn’t exactly a lie.

“Honey, it’ll only take a second, I don’t bite.” the clerk moved towards him again, wrapping the tape measure even tighter this time so he couldn’t move.

Yeonjun had originally complained that Lia gave him too SMALL of a chest.

“Come on, no hot girl has this small of a rack.” he had said.

His complaint was answered by a smack upside the head and a string of curses about boys always going after fake, big-breasted girls.

“You’re tall, skinny, AND you have bigger ones than me..” Ryujin pouted, a excited smile following up after. “Let’s get matching underwear!!”

Matching… underwear….?

Was this a girl thing??

“Do you have a set for the both of us?” Ryujin asked the clerk, who simply nodded and went perusing through the racks for something. He didn’t understand what the numbers and letters meant to him- just being inside of this store was like alien territory.

Guess Lia didn’t teach him quite enough.

“Yeonwoo, Yeonwoo!!” his angel’s voice startled him, only to have a small bag shoved into his face. “Here’s your set, I paid for the both of us!”

“What? But I could have-“

“You treated me to lunch, and bought me all of those things at the roadshops.” she pointed out, nudging his hand to take the bag. “It’s the least I could do for my best friend.”

Best friend….

Friend…..

Goddammit, he was making progress in the WRONG FIELD.

Unfortunately, Yeonjun’s house was closer to the center of the city than Ryujin’s.

So they stopped in front of his house, and Ryujin let go of his arm.

‘No, don’t let go..’ he wanted to shout.

“Today was really fun.” she smiled up at him. “Thanks for getting all that stuff for me, I’m kind of an impulse shopper…” she scratched the back of head sheepishly.

“No, no, it’s my pleasure!” Yeonjun reassured. “You know if you want anything you can let me know. I mean, we’re… best friends, aren’t we?”

It pained him to say that out loud.

“We sure are!”

The confirmation was even more painful.

“So.. I’ll see you in school tomorrow?”

“Yep!!" Ryujin quickly hopped up on one of the steps in front of his house to get up to his height, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “See you, Yeonwoo! Love you!”

He pressed his hand to where she kissed him as he looked after her small figure skipping down the street. There was an urge within him to run after her, rip off his wig, and tell her about everything, but he knew that there were more than enough reasons NOT to do that. He settled for the growing satisfaction instead.

Yeonjun was smiling like an idiot when he pushed open the door. Lia, lounging on the couch in her pajamas already, noticed this and sat up in interest.

“So who were you just out with that made you all smiley like this?” she asked.

For once, he could puff out his chest and proudly declare, “Ryujin!”. He even added the tiny detail that she had kissed him on the cheek before he left, waiting for some kind of grand reaction from his sister.

“Oh, so you finally managed to get her to yourself..” Lia nodded, the hopefulness that it would be a certain artist immediately subsiding. She saw the little bag that Yeonjun had thrown onto the couch before he headed to the bathroom to take off all of his ensemble, and slowly pulled it towards her, careful not to let her brother hear.

The stuff she pulled out made her cover her mouth to prevent a giggle from escaping.

“I didn’t know you were so into this charade, Junnie~” she cooed when Yeonjun came out of the bathroom, waving around the laciest white bra she had seen in her lifetime.

“What are you- OH MY FU-“ Yeonjun dropped the towel he was using for his face and dove for the couch, grabbing the undergarment from Lia and holding it behind his back. “SHE WANTED MATCHING UNDERWEAR SO I NATURALLY SAID YES.”

“But, Junnie, when will you actually wear these?” Lia continued in her mocking tone, pulling out the matching pair of panties, covered in an excessive amount of lace and ribbons that even made Yeonjun blush. “I didn’t know you were so into your character..”

“Shut UP.” he snatched the flimsy piece of cloth and the bag from her hand and marched into his bedroom, making sure to lock his door. He could still hear his sister’s hysterical laughter from outside of his room, though.

Yeonjun shuddered as he glanced at the undergarments again, stuffing them into the bag and tossing them somewhere in his closet. That was the last time he would going to agree to getting something like that.

Unless Ryujin wants to….

He fell back onto his bed in a state of bliss, his fingers grazing where her lips touched.

A buzz from his phone distracted him.

If he got a text from his angel, this would possibly be one of the best nights of his life.

From Art Nerd: [Photo Attachment]

Soobin? What did he want now?

Yeonjun unlocked his phone, to see a very well-taken picture of what he could only assume was the nerd’s canvas, but it was what was on it that made his jaw physically drop. Soobin had painted the branches of the cherry blossom tree in the outdoor garden, each flower with meticulous detail. But there was clearly a figure within the branches- a girl, with black locks that seems to float and flow with the blossom themselves. Her eyes were closed, but it was clear that she was wearing their school uniform.

It was… Yeonjun?

No, Yeonwoo..?

While he was still poring over the details of the painting, another text from Soobin came.

From Art Nerd: [Photo Attachment 2]

A picture of the canvas, more far away and blurrier than last time. But there was a head of curly hair and glasses peeking up from the bottom of the screen. Yeonjun could see that the tips of the nerd’s ears were a bright red, and that there were paint splatters and streaks on several places on his face.

‘He's still nervous even when he’s texting someone..’ Yeonjun thought. ‘How cute.’

“No, this isn’t cute, it’s creepy as hell!” he chastised himself, slapping his hand on his forehead.

Another buzz.

From Art Nerd: Hi Yeonwoo, remember when you said I could still draw you? Here’s a piece that’s still in progress, but I hope you like it!

From Art Nerd: Sorry!! Ignore the second picture, that was an accident!!!

“Idiot.” Yeonjun muttered, pressing his lips together to stop himself from smiling. He couldn’t stop looking at the picture of the artwork or at the accidental selfie. He also couldn’t stop his face from heating up again.

Slowly, all of the events that happened with Ryujin today were replaced with brief flashes of what could have happened if he was with Soobin. Sitting across each other in the stew shop, the artist dragging around Yeonjun to every possible store (probably art supply or media store instead of makeup and skincare), and the perfect ending to a perfect day, Soobin slowly leaning in to press a kiss to Yeonjun’s cheek-

‘What the hell am I doing?’ he mentally stopped himself, repeatedly reminding himself that today was a day with Ryujin. And Ryujin only.

He wanted nothing to do with the artist.

He was never part of his master plan.

And he never would be.

He was only a side character to all of this.

Yeonjun rolled over to his desk and shut off the lamp, blinking his eyes in absolute darkness.

After a few seconds of night sounds and shifting around in bed, he turned on his phone and sent one last text.

To ➡️ Art Nerd: i love it.  c:


	9. number NINE by t-ara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these chapter names are so random smh

“So when will we go on that date you promised?” Wooseok followed behind Yeonjun across the schoolyard like a servant, lugging his stuffed backpack.

“Hm…” he slowed down to a slow walking pace, putting a finger to his mouth. “I’m not completely convinced that you’re willing to take me on one.”

“What can I do to convince you?” Wooseok quickly swung the bag over his other should. “I’ll do whatever!”

“Make sure to have my tray ready for me when I walk into the cafeteria. Make sure the nice seat by the window in the library is open. And by the way, I want Kobe beef for dinner for this week, if that’s not a problem.” Yeonjun repeated his list of demands to the boy. “If you do all of this, I just might… think about it.”

“How does lobster in Hongdae sound? And then we go back for *dessert* at my place.” Wooseok stepped closer, his arm snaking around Yeonjun’s waist, to which he gracefully stepped out of.

“Get shit done first.” Yeonjun smiled and patted Wooseok’s face a little a too hard, leaving red mark on his cheek.

He turned away from the boy, shuddering as he thought about going somewhere ALONE with the asshole. If he was still the guy he knew before his current situation, he would stop a nothing to get with ‘Yeonwoo’.

Oh, the stuff he did for love..

He was too busy giving his very charitable waves to the male students that he almost ran into what he could only describe as a giant cloth board. The moving board stopped abruptly too, but not before bumping Yeonjun on the forehead.

“Ow, what the hell?!” he briefly reverted back to his original voice, his hand flying up to his forehead as he glared at his attacker.

Glasses.

Messy hair.

The nerd’s head peaked over the board, a bewildered look in his eyes.

“Yeonwoo?”

Yeonjun’s rising anger subsided when he heard the familiar voice. Soobin quickly tucked the board under his arm, and reached out for his hand, hesitating for a second before grabbing it and pulling Yeonjun into the nearest empty classroom.

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t see because my canvas was so big and the hallway was so crowded, I should have-“

“I-I’m fine.” Yeonjun looked at Soobin’s fingers, which were still laced in his, before wriggling out of his grip. “What even is that, anyway?”

Soobin pulled the cloth off of the giant board and revealed the picture that he had sent Yeonwoo last night, except that the canvas was almost three times the size of what Yeonwoo thought it was.

“I call it, ‘Blossoming Muse’.” Soobin proudly announced, gesturing to the giant painting. “Um.. what do you think?”

The picture was probably more impressive in person, as Yeonjun walked around and took in all of the tiny details. How he drew the individual strands of hair, the detail to shading on his face, and even the coloring of the tiniest flowers.

“It’s so pretty…” Yeonjun answered, leaning in to survey the artwork.

As he was perusing over the canvas, Soobin could only stare at how happy and content his muse looked. It was a drastic change from her fiery attitude out in the hallways with the other students.

“You’re prettier.” he thought aloud.

Yeonjun whipped his head around, licking his lips as he tried to make sense of what the nerd had said.

“W-What?”

“Um, nothing!!” Soobin quickly stuffed the canvas back into its cloth covering. “It’s almost class time…. should we go together..?”

“Sure…” Yeonjun nodded, his hand rubbing his forehead again.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Soobin asked, stepping closer. His fear and nerves were at an all-time low, as concern clouded his mind. He was close enough to push aside Yeonwoo’s bangs and check her forehead for any damage.

For Yeonjun, he could clearly see Soobin’s face now- at a distance he never could before. As his pored over his flawless pale skin and large brown eyes, he pressed his lips in a straight line as he thought about how soft his lips would feel..

He was too dazed by the nerd’s features before the panic that he would somehow figure out that Yeonwoo wasn’t exactly a ‘she’ took over his mind.

“I think-!” he pushed Soobin away from him, combing his bangs and keeping his head down in an attempt to cover his hot cheeks. “-we should go to class now!”

“Uh, yeah..” Soobin brushed himself off, his mind returning to reality.

“I’ll even carry your painting for you, let’s just go!” Yeonjun muttered at lightning speed, before picking up the giant canvas with ease and tucking it under his arm.

Soobin watched the girl lug around the painting that he even he dropped more than enough times like it was a notebook as he followed behind.

‘Her strength is unbelievable.. just like her beauty..’ he thought.

 

\- - -

 

Ryujin was a smart girl.

She could obviously tell whenever someone’s plan was and wasn’t working out.

And she was ecstatic that hers was going 100% her way.

Operation Yeonbin was running smoothly and efficiently, thanks to her genius skills and great connections.

What was on today’s agenda: Get Yeonwoo and Soobin alone once again. Let Yeonwoo see the great artist Soobin at work. The rest of it would be up to him.

As of now, it was only fifteen minutes until her free period would end and after school activities would begin.

She pulled out her phone, preparing her fingers for the message she was about to send.

It was time.

To ➡️ Yeonwoo: hey yeonwoo, can you get my pencil case before we leave? i left it in one of the desks down in the art studio.. ;~;

She smirked to herself. It would take her friend at least ten minutes before she could find her ingeniously planted pencil case.

From Yeonwoo: anything for you!! ^^

“Yes!!” she pumped her fist, earning a harsh “Shhhh!” from the librarian. Ryujin sent one last message before shutting off her phone and simply, waiting for the magic to happen.

To ➡️ Yeonwoo: take your time, no need to rush~

He hadn’t been down to the annex in quite a while, Yeonjun realized when he was walking down the stairs. Before Yeonwoo was brought to life, he went to the workout room quite frequently with his group, occasionally trying to peek into the girls’ locker room before they were chased away by the hall monitor. It felt weird walking right past the jocks and wannabes on the treadmills and ellipticals, and even weirder when he could feel their eyes on him and hear whistles through the glass.

Ugh, was he just as much of a pig as these guys were?

Yeonjun stopped at the last treadmill, turning back to look at the boys and reaching down to his skirt. He gave the bastards a flirty wink, as he barely moved the hem a millimeter up his thigh.

Immediately, all six of the guys came crashing down on the treadmills, their eyes glued on ‘Yeonwoo’. At least half of them would have a gnarly bump on their heads tomorrow. One of them even looked up from his place on the floor, and gave Yeonjun a ‘call me’ hand symbol.

Gross.

A quick scoff and a hair flip, and he was off again.

“I didn’t even know this school had actual art studios down here…” he wondered aloud, turning into the first door that had the word “Art” on it.

He let out a breath of relief when there was no one else in the room, and began bending over to check in every desk for Ryujin’s pencil case. He remembered that it was fluffy and pink, and shaped like a bunny.

“Only a cute person would have such a cute case like that.” he hummed to himself, hopping from desk to desk. At one point, he looked up to see the wall covered with various paintings- very large and very pretty paintings. And the one that Soobin was carrying around this morning was placed the highest, above all of the other smaller paintings.

As Yeonjun walked closer to the artwork, he noticed that the strokes and the shading used in all of the paintings were similar. It must have been the same person that painted all of these.. the same person that painted him.

He carefully ran his fingers over Soobin’s signature on one of his works.

“Soobin, you talented nerd….”

The sound of fabric shifted startled him.

“My muse….” he could make out, his body frozen in fear.

A ghost?

No, someone had to be dead to be a ghost.

His conscious?

No, that wasn’t what his conscious sounded like..

He followed the sound of soft breathing to the back corner of the studio, where the great artist himself was passed out on the wide desk- probably the biggest in the room. His brush pen had rolled out of his hand, and his head lay on top of an unfinished portrait of Yeonwoo herself. His glasses had been placed neatly at the top of the desk, and his hair seemed even messier than usual.

At first glance, Yeonjun would’ve found himself creeped out by the nerd in the process of drawing his fake persona.

But that was shortly replaced by that warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach again.

‘He must be thinking about me..’ one part of him thought.

‘Yeah, that’s creepy as hell!! Yeonwoo ain’t even real!’ the other part argued.

Yeonjun genuinely couldn’t figure out why his mind would wander and why he became so embarrassed around him. His best guess right now would probably be his inner guilt trying to give the artist, who was completely smitten with ‘Yeonwoo’, something to chew on. But even if he was doing this, he shouldn’t be catching feelings himself.. especially since this entire thing was for a GIRL.

Because he DIDN’T like boys..

“Yeon…woo…” Soobin muttered again, his yearning tone tugging at Yeonjun’s consciousness. He shivered a bit as he shifted his position, rubbing his face into the crook of his arm.

‘The poor kid is right underneath the A/C…’ he pushed out his lower lip, stepping closer to the mass on top of the desk.

His ‘Yeonjun’ side was yelling at him as he gingerly picked up the blazer that Soobin had left on a nearby chair, but the ‘Yeonwoo’ in him continued to follow through with what his body was telling him to do. He carefully draped the blazer over the artist’s shoulders, making sure it covered enough of his arms to keep him warm under the vent.

Now that Yeonjun looked at him, he was actually… really cute without that bewildered expression on his face all the time. He could easily be considered attractive if he just relaxed a bit more and got clothes that fit him, Yeonjun decided.

Seeing the artist in such a vulnerable, child-like state, there was nothing more he wanted to do than sit there and make sure no one woke him up. The kid was already bullied enough, and he probably didn’t sleep that much either, judging from his occasional eye bags. Yeonjun only saw this side back when Yeonwoo didn’t exist.

From the day Yeonwoo walked in, Yeonjun could tell that Soobin became a hundred times more driven and happier. If he didn’t succeed with making Ryujin fall for him, at least he would know that he made a difference in this nerd’s life.

Now Yeonjun felt like he was being a creep.

He had been staring at Soobin for the past few minutes, not bearing to tear his eyes away from his stringy black hair and the slightest pink color on his cheeks.

‘You idiot..’

Another step closer to the desk, to the point where he could lean on the wood.

‘How are you making me do these things?'

Without thinking, he leaned down, closing his eyes.

Closer.

Closer.

And closer.

Until his lips just barely brushed against the artist’s cheek.

His eyes flew open, and he lifted up his head so fast that he probably gave himself a headache.

What the hell did he just do?

WHY the hell did he just do that?

“Miss Choi Yeonwoo?”

Yeonjun turned to see another student standing right behind him, causing him to jump and a hand to fly up to clutch his chest.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you!” the student apologized, bending into a deep bow and adjusting his glasses afterwards. “It’s just that.. we don’t usually get that many visitors down here.”

“Oh..” Yeonjun nodded. “I was.. just leaving.”

“Is President Choi okay?” the student, whose sense of dressing was just as bad, if not worse than Soobin’s, asked, looking past Yeonjun and at the sleeping figure. “Were you..”

“O-Out of the goodness of my heart, I just prevented your president from catching a cold, thank you very much.” Yeonjun made up, sticking his nose in the air. “His blazer fell from his back, so I picked up and threw it back on him.”

“In that case, the Dreamies thank you for your kindness, m'lady.” the student bowed again. “My name is Chenle, I serve as President Choi’s vice president.”

...Vice?

Several students dressed similarly to the kid came in through the door, all bobbing their heads in bows.

‘Dreamies…?’ Yeonjun thought to himself, as he observed the meek nature of the students that now filled the room. ‘So these are the types of people the nerd hangs out with.. No, he’s the PRESIDENT of these kids….’

“Well, I better get going…” Yeonjun looked around the room quickly, luckily spotting a bunny pencil case in the desk right in front of Soobin’s workspace and grabbing it. “Have fun with your… club!”

“Wait, Miss Yeonwoo?” Chenle held out his arm, careful not to actually touch him. “If you don’t mind, the Dreamies have been meaning to ask you for some time…”

“..Yes?”

“Would you be willing to be our live model next meeting? We all agree that you’re a very good subject to draw- we would be honored if you were to be our next muse.” Chenle asked, clasping his hands together.

Yeonjun would be lying if he said he didn’t feel bad for these kids- hidden away from the rest of the school without having an opportunity to speak with anyone else outside of their social level.. until now.

After all, he was a model for Soobin before, so experience shouldn’t be a problem.

He gave the group a warm smile.

“I’d be happy to.”

A pair of glasses clattered to the floor behind Yeonjun.

“What are you all so noisy about….” Soobin yawned, sitting up in his seat.

What Yeonjun just did a few minutes away flashed and replayed multiple times in his mind.

Soobin’s vision was blurry, but he swore that he saw Yeonwoo standing in the art studio. He also wondered what that pleasant warm sensation that brushed against his cheeks earlier was. He felt it too much for it to be part of his dream, but at the same time, he doubted someone could’ve kissed HIM.

“I’llseeyouguysnextweekIguessBYE!” he heard a familiar voice say, but he was too slow to catch who the person was before they disappeared.

With rapidly reddening cheeks and beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead, Yeonjun sped out of the room like there was no tomorrow.

His hands were still touching his lips.


	10. TEN from nct deserves better

“Lia, what counts as a kiss?”

She stopped dead in her tracks.

She never did that while shopping.

“Shouldn’t you be asking yourself that?” she stared at her brother, confused. It was such an innocent question, and Yeonjun was the thing furthest away from innocent.

“I-I mean, of course I know what a kiss IS…” he continued, stuffing Lia’s most recent purchase into one of the various bags he was carrying. “But like….. when does it not mean anything?”

What the hell had happened to her brother to make him ask her this?

She knew better not to ask and risk a hissy fit in the middle of a department store.

“It only means something if you want it to mean something.”

“Oh.”

“By the way, why are you trying to cover your face with that hat? We’re indoors. You’re not Yeonwoo right now.” Lia snatched the baseball cap off of her brother’s head, wondering why he seemed so panicked the moment she did. “Even though you’re Yeonwoo in school, you’re still Yeonjun outside. Did you forget that, Junnie~?”

“Ew, stop.” he shook out his hair, rubbing his face with his hands. “You try keeping up two different identities that are two different GENDERS.”

“I think I’m good.” Lia mused, holding up the skirt in her hand up to herself, then up to her brother. “Now that you know both sides of the story, would you have rather have dumb boys do everything for you, or be led on by some other hoe?”

Even though it WAS nice to boss around Wooseok and have him obey his every word without hesitation, the underlying anxiety that the guy was expecting some sort of payment one day. When his time ran out, he didn’t know how he was going to avoid his end of the deal. It wasn’t like he couldn’t deck him and run away if he tried anything, but did he really want to risk his fake persona’s reputation when he hadn’t even fixed his own?

“Hold these, I’m gonna go try this on.” Lia dumped a pile of clothes into his arms as she headed behind one of the curtains.

Yeonjun heaved a sigh, leaning against the wall.

Pretending he was on “medical leave” really limited where he could go during his free time. There was always someone from his school everywhere he went.

Speaking of which…

“Pick up your fat asses and hurry up!!”

Oh god.

That voice.

Yuna’s head peeked above several of the clothes racks, along a few of her minions following close behind. Of course she wasn’t carrying any of her own shopping bags.

Yeonjun slapped his cap back on and turned to a wall, pretending to be interested in the plaster and concrete. He quickly wiped away the beads of sweat that were forming on his forehead, and wiped his palms on his jeans, stuffing his hands in his pockets afterwards.

“Where’s the top I saw yesterday? It was around here somewhere… if any of you b*tches try to take it for yourself, I WILL cut you.”

Her voice was like nails to a chalkboard…

He tried to slowly inch over to the next department, but not before one of Yuna’s followers grabbed his arm.

“Do you work here?” she asked, not even looking up at him but down at her phone. “My friend is…. oh my god.”

Shit.

“Yuna!!”

SHIT.

He needed to get out. NOW.

She turned the corner, her obnoxiously high heels clacking against the linoleum floor. Her facial expression contorted from annoyance, to surprise, to her signature evil smirk.

“ _Yeonjun oppa~!!_ ”

He was still disturbed by how the girl managed to squeeze all of the air out of him. Yeonjun’s arms were held to his sides, as Yuna snatched the hat off of his head at an attempt to go on her toes and plant a kiss on him. He quickly got out of it though, but stepping back at the last second.

“Oh.. hey.” he uttered.

“Oppa, where have you been? I’ve missed you so, so much~” she pressed her face into Yeonjun’s chest. Yeonjun cursed to himself, seeing as she probably ruined his shirt with the foundation residue she left behind.

As for “missing” him..

What kind of act was she pulling?

“If you really did miss me, you wouldn’t be trying to hop on Wooseok while I’m gone now, would you?” he sneered before he could stop himself. 

Wow, Yeonwoo was really rubbing off on him.

Yuna immediately pushed him off of her and smoothed down her outfit, pretending like she never made contact with Yeonjun.

“Well what else was I supposed to do when oppa was on….” she paused. “..medical leave?”

“If you hadn’t gotten off of me as quickly as you did, you would contracted ..hyperbenzosephorasitis.” he stated confidently, picking up the bags he had dropped when Yuna attacked him. There was a sense of satisfaction that washed over him as he watched the girl panic and quickly brush off any areas that came in contact with him. “Now if you don’t have anything besides an apology to say, I’ll be off.”

“Why do you have so many bags, oppa?” Yuna grabbed his arm to stop him again.  She read off all of the names on the bags- MAC, Forever 21, Macy’s. “What were you doing at these stores? Are you taking up crossdressing as a hobby now?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” he scoffed, pushing down the rising panic within him. “I’d never do something as gay as that.”

Huh. Funny.

"Are these for one of your hoes, then? Oh, does that Ryujin girl provide in-home services too~?”

It was that last question that set him off.

“What about Ryujin?” he dropped the bags and the clothes in his arms, moving towards Yuna.

“I wonder how she would fare without your protection..” Yuna put a finger to her lips. “I doubt her friend and your behemoth of a sister would be able to help, Yeonwoo’s too busy whoring around with the boys she stole from me.”

“…only fight with words, not fists.” he remembered Lia telling him on his second day. He unclenched his fist and silently counted to ten.

“Well, you see…” Yeonjun cleared his throat, plastering a smile on his face and stepping closer to Yuna, who then took a step back. She was taken aback by the smile on his face, which was growing with every second. “Ryujin should be fine, since she has a brain, unlike whatever the hell is growing in there.” he tapped Yuna’s head. “Oh. Sounds hollow.”

“Y-Yah!” her hand flew up to cover her forehead.

“And judging from your split ends, clumpy mascara, and fake Gucci bag…” Yeonjun tore apart every part of her outfit, watching in amusement as she tried to cover herself with said fake bag. “My sister and Ryujin are better women than you’ll ever be- both physically and mentally.”

Yuna stood there with her mouth wide open. Her minions all looked at each other, wondering what to do while their leader was in shock.

“Also a word of advice.” Yeonjun leaned into whisper in her ear. “If you’re going to stuff your bra, at least make the size difference between the two of them a little more discreet.”

Yuna stomped her feet, and used her purse to cover her chest.

“Y-Your hoe and your sister better watch their backs!” she growled, pointing her finger in Yeonjun’s face before scurrying off with her followers showering her in compliments in an attempt to quell her anger.

The sound of the curtain to the dressing room made him turn around in the middle of his little victory, and he saw Lia leaning against the wall and slowly clapping.

“You’re becoming quite smart with your words, Yeonjun.” she remarked, pulling him to the register by the sleeve. “A big difference from your mumbling, bumbling caveman talk before.”

“I’m pretty sure caveman is pushing it, Lia.” he watched as Lia dumped a pile of clothes in front of the cashier, in addition to the clothes that he was carrying before. “You’re getting all of these..? Don’t you have enough clothes at home?”

Lia reached into Yeonjun’s pocket, pulled out his wallet, and waved around his credit card.

“Who said they were for me?”

She swiped it before Yeonjun could even protest.

 

\- - -

 

“President Choi.”

It was weird for someone to want to talk to him so early in the morning. He turned around, facing  Chenle and a bunch of the other members of his club right before he entered his classroom.

“What is it, guys?”

“We just need you to sign off on this so we can get some props from the theater kids.” Chenle held out a clipboard to him, complete with an X indicating where he should sign.

“Oh.” he took the pen out of Chenle’s hand, squinting his eyes at his group as his pen hovered over the line. “..What’s this for, though?”

“I’m sorry, President Choi, I thought you heard the conversation a few days ago?” Chenle tucked the clipboard under his arm, scratching the back of his head. “Choi Yeonwoo agreed to be our live model for the Art Club's meeting today.”

For some reason he clenched the pen so hard that it snapped in half.

“President Choi!!” the club members panicked and scrambled around like lost children, trying to find something to for the exploded ink.

By the time he noticed what he had done, the ink had already began dripping down his hand and to the floor. The shock of his action scared even him, as he clumsily grabbed a roll of paper towels from the teacher’s desk and tried to wipe the blue liquid from his hand.

“Sorry… I-I don’t know what that was.” Soobin apologized, taking out a sketch pencil from his case and quickly scribbling his signature on the clipboard before shoving it back into Chenle’s hands. “Is that all?”

“That’s it!” he glanced down warily at his president’s ink-stained hand, before giving him a nod and a smile. “We already organized everything else, so all you need to do is bring your supplies so you can sketch our muse!”

The group turned around and moved as an excited mass through the hallway, as Soobin slumped into his seat.

Our muse…

Our….?

OUR??!

His sketch pencil snapped in half.

He tossed it into the trash, making a mental note to run to the art supply store soon.

That one word echoed in his head, sending his mind into somewhere he had rarely been before.

“They didn’t even care to confirm with me.” he muttered.

A warm feeling rose up in his stomach again, but it wasn’t a pleasant one. Biting, gnawing at his conscience, he could feel his own aura grow from neutral to something much more chilling. He even clenched his fists, and felt his heart rate quicken.

Was this anger?

No, it wasn’t that bad..

Anxiety?

No, there was no one around..

He shook off the dark thoughts clouding his mind, and instead focused on the perks of the situation. He would once again see his muse outside of the classroom, and she was doing the honor of posing for him (although it wouldn’t be JUST him..). The last time they had attempted to do this, it ended with a very flustered Yeonwoo pushing Soobin to the ground and running out of the garden.

Soobin could already feel his cheeks warming as he thought back to his muse's extremely cute reaction.

His face only continued to grow hot as the topic of his thoughts stepped into the classroom, whispering and laughing with Ryujin.

Oh, what he would give to have another moment like that.

Only this time he wished it wouldn’t pass by so quickly.

 

\- - -

 

He had been secretly praying that no one in the Dreamies had seen what he did to Soobin the last time he was down in the studio. He added an extra little prayer for lucky(?) soul who might have seen to not say anything to the nerd.

The way Soobin acted in class made him worried that one of his followers might have hinted him, but since he wasn’t actively avoiding Yeonjun, he guessed that it must’ve been something else.

Swooping down to pick up anything he dropped a millisecond after, insisted that he would hand in Yeonjun’s homework for him, and even asking if he needed to walk him to the other side of the classroom, there was something definitely off about his behavior.

But he didn’t say anything, so Yeonjun brushed it off.

‘What if he knows, but just isn’t saying anything?’ was one of his thoughts.

It was a possibility…

He hit his palm against the side of his head, repeating to himself who this mission was all about. Yeonjun looked over to his angel, who was walking alongside him with a camera in hand.

“You said that you weren’t interested in becoming any kind of model, but here you are.” she put the camera strap over her neck, looking up at Yeonjun with another one of her eye smiles. “You bet I’m gonna take a bunch of pictures of you today!"

“It was a spur-of-the-moment decision..” Yeonjun tried to defend himself. Even he didn’t know exactly why he agreed to this- was it out of politeness? Or was he just distracted that day after the THING he did?

‘That stupid art nerd is making me do stupid things and think stupid thoughts.. I need to distance myself..’

A small part of him wanted to object to the last part of that thought. It was the part that yearned for the brushing of his hands against his face in the garden, the warmth of his chest in the movie theater, and for the soft, whispered reassurances on the rooftop.

He couldn’t define the feeling.

Was Soobin really polluting his thoughts?

Or was he simply blossoming from the seed he somehow planted in his mind?

“Oh yeah, Yuna told me something today…” Ryujin interrupted his thinking.

Hearing her name made him want to cringe.

“What’d she say?”

“She said something like… ‘You should be grateful MY Yeonjun oppa is protecting you’.” Ryujin repeated, confusion evident on her face. “So I was wondering… do you know if your brother said anything to her about me?”

Of course, I AM the brother!!

Another opportunity had come his way, and he was a bit too excited for it. He took a few seconds to collect his thoughts and plan out his story- he needed to be vague, but still get his point across.

“I think so.” he began, making sure not to blurt any weirdly specific details. “He said something about Yuna trash talking about you… so Yeonjun said what he had to say.”

“He defended me?” Ryujin clarified, pointing to herself with the most surprised look in her eyes.

“Yeah, he was pretty adamant about it too.”

Was it working?

“Well in that case..” she blinked, shaking her head. “Tell him I said thanks. Maybe I was wrong about him after all…” She said the last part much quieter, so much so that Yeonjun couldn’t hear from where he was.

It worked!!

“Definitely!” he nodded, giddy. “He also-“

“Miss Choi Yeonwoo, you came!!”

Yeonjun was surrounded by the members of the Dreamies in a matter of seconds, all ushering him to the little platform that they had set up specifically for that day. He could already see Ryujin preparing her camera and pushing herself to the front of the crowd. He spotted Soobin towards the back corner, near his own working space.

His head was down, focusing on whatever he was furiously scratching down on the clipboard he held. Instead of sitting up straight like he usually did in class, he lounged on the seat instead, one leg crossed over the other. His round glasses sat on the tip of his nose, his brow furrowed as he crossed out something he wrote.

Was it wrong that Yeonjun found serious Soobin… attractive?

‘Yes it’s wrong, stupid. You’re STRAIGHT.'

“Soobin!” he called out before he could even process what he was doing.

The artist looked up, immediately fumbling with his pen when he saw Yeonwoo’s face. He gave her a weak wave, hiding his face behind the clipboard as he slipped into a back room.

'So much for hot serious Soobin….’

“You can start out with any pose you want- and then after say… twenty minutes, you can change it.” Chenle began explaining to Yeonjun, even taking his hand and leading him to the little sofa placed on the platform. “Everything is up to you today, since you’re our muse.”

Yeonjun nodded, before trying to find a comfortable position. At first he plopped down on the sofa, with his arms and legs both spread wide open. 

What? It was a really comfortable sofa..

After a few seconds of silence, weird stares from everyone, and a “Psst!” from Ryujin, he settled for smoothing out his skirt and sitting exactly the way Lia made him rehearse thousands of times before she let ‘Yeonwoo’ out of the house.

It was like every time Soobin heard someone use the word “our” regarding his muse, he would break a writing utensil. He tossed the two halves of the pencil into the trash, quickly grabbing his sketchpad and a pen and setting himself up with the drawing crowd. He cursed under his breath when he realized there were no open spaces towards the front, so he settled for the closest opening, making sure to snatch a good angle of his muse.

Not that she had any bad angles, though.

He finished sketching in less than ten minutes, already having memorized every perfect angle and curve of Yeonwoo. Deciding that walking around would help quell the ever-present biting sensation in his stomach, he left his sketchbook at his seat, beginning to peek over at his club members’ books instead.

“Shouldn’t her head be smaller?”

“The legs are a bit disproportionate, right?”

“Broader shoulders.”

Yeonjun noticed him hopping from one member to another, and even raised his eyebrow at his action.

“Yeonwoo, please try not to turn your head.” Chenle reminded, with a polite smile.

“Sorry.”

“Her eyes are brighter than that.”

“I don’t know, her chest is slightly bigger.”

Yeonjun heard the comment, opening his mouth to say something.

“Yeonwoo.” Chenle reminded.

“Sorry..”

“This is a sketching session, not class. Don’t doodle like that!”

“You can’t draw her as if she’s a weed, she’s the blossom of the garden.”

A light shade of pink tinged Yeonjun’s cheeks when he heard the comment.

‘He just compared you to a plant.’

At least it was a pretty plant.

“SHE IS THE ENTIRE GARDEN.”

“YOU NEED TO CAPTURE HER _ESSENCE_.”

Chenle stood up from his seat, turning towards his president, who was bent over and practically shoving his face into another member’s book.

“President Choi.” he got out, in the calmest voice he could muster through gritted teeth. “If you could sit down, please. We can have constructive criticisms later.”

Soobin looked around at the slightly annoyed expressions of his members, before bobbing into a bow and shuffling back to his seat.

“Yeonwoo, did anyone ever tell you that you have the loveliest blush? It’s the perfect shade of pink.” one of the artists gushed, causing said blush to deepen on Yeonjun’s cheeks as he stammered out a thanks.

‘Since when was I so sensitive to compliments?’ he wondered. The comments he heard before all of this was split between positive and negative- usually something about how he could smoothly work his way in the bedroom or about the body he had gained from going to the gym six days a week.

He sort of missed his six pack..

With Chenle’s approval he switched his pose, opting to swing his legs over the armrest of the sofa, making sure his skirt didn’t ride up too much.

From his place, Soobin could feel his ears turning red when Yeonwoo’s skirt inched up her thigh. His silent embarrassment soon turned into realization that everyone that was watching his muse could see as well.

Okay, maybe there was a little anger that was brewing inside of him.. But that wasn’t  that only thing. The overwhelming feeling that he swore he was going to choke on wasn’t anger or sadness- it was complicated because he had never experienced it before.

He must have been the only one in the room that wasn’t dedicated to their sketchpad. Just when he was about to walk around and peek at more drawings, a warning look from Chenle made him back all the way into his corner, sitting down on his stool, crossing his arms and wearing the look of a child who just got his toys taken away.

There was a little part in Yeonjun that became frustrated as he watched Soobin mope in the corner.

‘Yah, I came here for you, you nerd.’ he tried sending a mental message to the artist.

He couldn’t move that much without risking another reminder from Chenle, but as subtly as he could, he swung his legs back and forth, as if it was a signal for Soobin to look over at him.

The nerd paid no attention, his head down in his lap again.

‘Hey, nerd!’

Yeonjun let out a yawn, making it about ten seconds longer than it actually needed to be.

‘Look at me!!’

Giving Chenle an apologetic look, Yeonjun stood up and stretched his arms as high as he could and even waved them around, continuing the longest yawn he ever pulled in his life.

‘Pay attention to me!!!’

Soobin, still not looking up, turned his back on him to get something out of the storage cabinet.

Yeonjun silently sent him a string of complaints and curses, completely ignoring the reminders from the sketch artists. In his own moping fit, he fell back down on the sofa, wearing a pout on his face.

“Stupid nerd.” he muttered.

Soobin turned back from the closet with a crowded palette and a plastic cup full of water in his hands. If the other members didn’t want his opinions, he might as well start another picture, right?

But then he glanced toward the platform and saw the way Yeonwoo was posed.

She was sprawled across the sofa, her head resting on her outstretched arm. Her back was slightly arched, and the way she was laying down emphasized the curve of her hip, all the way down to her thighs. But she didn’t have the neutral expression she should’ve had while posing, instead there was the slightest pout on her lips.

If she was wearing something other than her uniform, Soobin probably would’ve had to excuse himself from the room because he swore he was overheating.

Several of the other male members of the Dreamies closest to the platform suddenly start furiously sketching, their heads moving up and down between Yeonwoo and their pads. He spotted one of them, the one closest to the corner, lick his lips and bite down on his bottom one as he tried to discreetly shove his hand down his pants.

At that moment he knew what the gnawing feeling was. He hated the word though.

Jealousy.

He grew livid, slamming the cup of water and the palette down his workspace, not even caring that he ruined the papers underneath. The quiet, nervous Soobin that he had spent his entire life with disappeared, and instead the hot blood coursing through his veins made him feel like a new person entirely. And his following actions came so naturally to him, as if he had been doing this for his entire life.

“Stop.” he called out, making his way up to the front of the studio. A few people stopped to look up at him, waiting for their president’s words.

Yeonjun sat up in interest.

“President Choi?” they asked.

“I said, STOP!!” Soobin yelled, the entire room becoming hushed.

Even he didn’t know his voice could be that threatening.

“Is there something wrong, President Choi?” Chenle inquired, immediately standing up.

Pushing past his vice president, Soobin stepped in front of the student he had caught with his hand in his pants, his shadow looming over him.

“You should be ashamed of yourself. This is a place of art and enlightenment, not for your impure, barbaric thoughts.” he lectured to the student, who scoffed and stood up. It was quite an amusing scene, considering that Soobin had almost an entire head over the kid.

“What are you talking about, Mister President?” he added the title mockingly. “I’m just sketching our muse.”

_Our_.

The word again.

“As your president, I will be straight with you.” Soobin grabbed the kid by his sweater vest, causing him to kick over his stool in shock. “If you don’t get out of here in the next minute, the only thing smaller than your little Michelangelo down there must be your brain.”

Yeonjun had never seen a student run away that fast.

He didn’t know if it was wrong to notice how incredibly.. hot an angry Soobin was. His walk, his attitude, even the very air around him exuded confidence and masculinity. He reminded Yeonjun of himself before Ryujin came around.

“President-“

“Don’t cancel club just yet. If you can’t find another model, work on the mosaics we started last time.” Soobin rattled off orders, making Chenle shut his mouth and nod meekly in response.

‘Another model…?’ Yeonjun tilted his head.

The artist was acting so differently that when he approached him, Yeonjun simply stared up at Soobin wearing an expression full of intrigue and confusion, along with a pinch of fear.

Just when he thought Soobin was about to say something, the artist grabbed Yeonjun’s backpack from the edge of the stage before holding out his hand to him.

He simply blinked up at him, confused.

“Let’s go.” he uttered with his dead-serious expression.

There was absolutely no stutter in his words.

Yeonjun could feel the glow in his cheeks spread down to his neck.

“B-But the-“

“We’re leaving.” Soobin insisted, his voice loud and clear.

Yeonjun’s eyes flickered to the hand in front of him and to the rest of the room, who sat in awed silence.

‘Don’t… What’s he even doing? Where is he gonna take you? WHY is he taking you out of a completely normal situa-'

He gingerly placed his fingers in Soobin’s, his hand immediately enveloped by the  warmth of the other’s as Soobin pulled him out of his seat and started running towards the doors, not even leaving time for Yeonjun to even register what was going on.

Students and the walls of the school flew past Yeonjun in a blur- the one thing that was clear to him was Soobin.

He only saw him.


	11. eleleleeleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok but theres a makeup store that actually greets you with "HI PRINCESS" in korea so like  
> huehuehue

Somehow they had managed to get out of school and into the center of the city in record time. Minutes passed by like seconds, and not a word was exchanged between the two of them.

Soobin was too focused on getting Yeonwoo out of sight and out of mind from the Dreamies, and Yeonjun was still trying to process what just happened, that neither of them said a word to each other.

Yeonjun gulped, staring at their hands and wondering why he hadn’t protested or freaked out yet. He also wondered why his hand in Soobin’s felt so natural, as if he had been waiting for someone along and make him feel whatever had washed over him from the moment he had escaped from the art studio with him.

“Y-Yah.” Yeonjun called out, finally coming to his senses.

No response.

“Hey!!!” he tried again, louder this time. He stopped in his tracks, making Soobin double back, letting go of his hand. “What do you think you’re doing?"

The cloud of anger and jealousy within him faded bit by bit as they left the school, and by this time, Soobin was once again the quiet, level-headed boy he had always been. And as always, just looking at his muse, nevertheless being alone with her, made him want to curl up into a blushing mess of a ball.

“Uh.. I needed to get you away from school.” he answered. “You seemed uncomfortable. You were moving around a lot for an art model.”

‘That’s because I was trying to get YOUR attention, idiot.’

“Okay… but why drag me all the way out here?” Yeonjun gestured to the streets of people and the towering buildings around them. “We’re in the middle of the city already- wouldn’t my house have been a more logical choice?”

‘Not that I mind being alone with you..’

Wait, no!!

“Wh-Whoops..” Soobin scratched the back of his head, wincing at his muse’s slightly twitching eyebrow. “I mean…. if you really want to, I can take you back home.”

Did he really want to leave?

The nerd took the effort to get him out of there..

And away from that creepy pervert…

“D-Don’t take this the wrong way..!” Yeonjun started, trying to pick apart his words. “Since we’re out here already though…. d-do you want to go eat something?”

His muse suddenly turned bashful, tracing the ground with her feet and trying to look anywhere but at him with that adorable pink blush on her cheeks.

“I’d like that.” Soobin smiled- genuinely smiled.

‘I swear, he’s trying to kill me.’ Yeonjun thought to himself, feeling a bead of sweat under his wig.

They walked side by side again, the air between them becoming quiet once again. Gulping, Yeonjun looked away and moved closer to Soobin, letting his hand brush against his.

His heart was about to burst out of his chest.

‘It’s not supposed to!!’

Soobin followed suit, glancing back and forth between Yeonwoo’s face and her hand, before he slowly got hold of it again. He waited for a negative reaction, but nothing came.

‘Why do I like the touch of your hand so much?’

Within the next ten minutes, they were seated in a restaurant, their faces stuck in their menus. Soobin kept peeking over his own menu to watch Yeonwoo quickly flip through the pages before closing the menu and leaning on top of it.

“Are you two ready to order?” a waiter came over, his pen poised over his notepad.

“I’ll just have the spaghetti.” Soobin decided, peeking over at the other.

“Not really sure yet…” Yeonjun pursed his lips and leaned his head in his hand. “I’m deciding between the-“

“For the lady, I recommend the taking a look at the salads. We have a great selection of them with in-season fruits and-!” the waiter began flipping through the menu in front of Yeonjun before he slammed his hand down.

‘Who does this guy think he is? Do I look fat?? I’m not fat!!'

' _Salads, my ass._ '

“Actually, I know now~!” he cooed, flipping through the menu again. “I’ll start with a large appetizer of breadsticks and garlic bread AND knots, and then I’ll have the family-sized pasta carbonara and extra large chicken fettuccine- with EXTRA CHEESE. I want a personal pizza with every topping you have on it, extra parmesan on the side. And then.. I’ll finish with five scoops of gelato- one of every flavor!”

The waiter frantically flipped through the pages of his pad, repeating the order out loud as his eyes widened with every thing he ordered.

“Since I’m on a diet, that’ll be all for me today!” Yeonjun basically slapped their menus into the waiter’s hands, smirking to himself when he scuffled away.

If Soobin’s jaw didn’t drop low enough when he heard just how much his muse ordered, it probably hit the ground when all of the food was placed on their table.

How would his muse finish all of that?

“Thank you!!” Yeonjun said to the three workers that just brought out his various trays, picking up his fork and knife to look at Soobin. “Let’s dig in!”

Soobin could barely start his own meal because he was too busy staring at and wondering how Yeonwoo managed to fit three garlic knots and a heaping forkful of fettuccine in her mouth, only to get it all down with some scoops of the gelato. The bowl of breadsticks steadily became empty, and the steaming pizza on the tray soon turned to crumbs. Looking around, he noticed that some of the other patrons were staring on in a mixture of intrigue, disgust, and disbelief.

Yeonjun threw half the jar of parmesan onto his pizza and the remaining half onto his pasta, which he twirled up into a ball the size of a fist and eased into his mouth, chewing and licking his lips afterwards.

“This place is so good…. I forgot how good their pasta sauce is!”

Despite the chewing sounds and occasional moans, Soobin only saw the genuine twinkle and the rosy cheeks on Yeonwoo, taking note that every time she opened her mouth, the apples of her cheeks would hit the light in the most perfect way, highlighting her innocent excitement at something as simple as food.

‘Cutecutecutecutecutecutecutecutecutecutecutecute!!!’

Soon enough, Yeonjun caught wind of Soobin’s careful eye on him and eventually slowed down his eating pace even though the only thing left on the table was half of his gelato. 

Oh yeah… he wasn’t supposed to be eating like an animal.

Another instance in which his pride won over his mind.

He coughed, and delicately dabbed at his mouth with the napkin before folding it neatly on the table.

“I’m full for the day.” he announced, nonchalantly tucking a piece of hair behind his ear. It worried him that the movement came naturally now.

‘Channel innocent schoolgirl, not gluttonous freak.’

“Was it good?” Soobin asked, his eyes carefully watching the curl behind Yeonwoo’s ear float down to the size of her face again.

Yeonjun nodded, a wide smile taking over his face.

“The best!”

Soobin swore he was going to have a heart attack.

At first it was due to Yeonwoo, but then he took a look at the check the waiter just placed on the table.

Yeonjun reached for the side pocket of his backpack, expecting to feel the smooth leather of his wallet, but instead felt nothing but air.

‘Shit.’

He opened his backpack and dug through it, hoping it would show up magically.

‘SHIT!’

He was having a breakdown until Soobin’s voice cut through his panic.

“I think I saw your wallet with Ryujin when we left school..”

Oh, right.

Bless that girl, really.

But still, how would he pay for the meal?

“I-I’m so sorry, I ordered a lot of food and I should pay for it myself- I don’t know what they’re gonna do to us n-now and I’m so, so-“ he found himself stuttering, just under the point where he was preparing to break down.

‘What the hell? Just take advantage of this stupid nerd!! Free food!'

“Yeonwoo.” Soobin’s hand made its way across the table to rest on Yeonjun’s wrist.

The warm, glowing feeling was back.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay.”

“Really?!” Yeonjun confirmed, his hand flying up to his mouth. “You would do that?”

“I would.” Soobin handed off the check to the waiter, several bills tucked into the checkbook.

Now why was there the same warm, glowing feeling- but in Yeonjun’s stomach. Something about the way that the nerd had offered.

It made him want to just thank him by throwing his arms around him and leaning in to…

Wait, STOP!!

“Thanks, I owe y-you.” Yeonjun lowered his head, not bearing to look at his savior  due to his knowledge that his cheeks were probably flushing again.

No. idea. why.

It was a good thing Soobin found every part of his muse pretty- he smiled to himself even when he could only see the top of her head.

 

\- - -

 

“Do you want to go somewhere else?”

The two walked out of the ice cream shop, which was right next to the restaurant they ate at. Soobin was surprised at how his muse stomach something else after her feast, but it was *Yeonwoo*, so there was no doubt that he would get her anything she wanted.

“…Do you think this is a date or something?” Yeonjun stopped in the street, raising his eyebrow.

For a few seconds, Soobin watched his muse’s little pink tongue take a lick of the ice cream, noticing the little smile on her face that had been there since they ate.

‘At least she’s happy…’ he thought, feeling a smile about to take over his own face.

“Um.. is it?” he gulped.

Yeonjun hoped the ice cream would somehow cool down the heat he felt take over his body when the artist asked the question.

Spoiler: It didn’t.

“O-Of course not!!!” he stuttered, turning on his heel and fast-walking away from Soobin.

Not too fast though.

It wasn’t hard for Soobin to catch up to him, but it was trying to start up a conversation again. They ate their ice creams while walking next to each other in silence.

‘Do something!’ Soobin’s mind screamed at him.

“Do you wanna check out some stuff here?” he stopped in front of a random store, with posters advertising new products plastered in front.

Yeonjun looked up and cringed at the pink, princess-y aesthetic. Why would he willingly go into a makeup store as girly as this one?

Oh yeah..

Yeonwoo’s a “girl"...

“Sure, why not..?” he shrugged, a worker dressed in a pink apron grabbing his free hand the moment he stepped in. “Uhh.….?”

“Welcome back, _princess~_!” she greeted, pulling him deep into the store and immediately lotion or something on his hand. “Are you looking for anything specific today? We have a new promotion where if you buy one of something, you get a second one for free!”

“Oh, no, I was just standing outside of the st-“

“Come on, don’t be shy!! I’m sure we can find a nice lipstick shade for you- maybe some shadows too.. although I don’t think you need any more blush because your cheeks are already such a pretty shade~”

“Huh..” he got out, pressing his hand against his face.

Yep. Still warm.

He drowned out the sound of the worker because his head was already spinning from the products she was listing at lightning speed and the sickly sweet scent that permeated the room. Foundation, blush, lipstick- it didn’t matter what she said because it was all just stupid goops and powders girls used to not look dead to the outside world.

Stupid goops and powders that he used to fool the entire school into thinking he was his own sister…..

By the time his mind returned to reality, the worker had already filled a basket with products he swore were on the other side of the store.

“Will that be all for you today?” she asked, staring at him with her huge circle lenses.

As if there wasn’t enough makeup in his house.

He still couldn’t go a day without tripping over random tubes of lip tint Lia left around the floor.

“Um… actually.. I don’t think-“

“We’ll just take all of those, please.”

Soobin suddenly appeared, placing several bills into the basket and giving the worker a smile. It seemed like an effortless action, but he had actually just spent the last five minutes freaking out and pacing back and forth outside of the store, deciding whether or not he should come in. Someone needed to save his muse, and today he decided the hero was going to be himself.

“H-Hey!!” Yeonjun tried calling out, but the worker was already running towards the cash register and ringing up the order. He turned back to Soobin with his fists clenched. “I wasn’t going to get that stuff anyway!”

“Because you don’t have your wallet.” he answered simply, sticking his hands in his too-big pants. “I told you, it’s fine!”

'But I really don’t want makeup..’

Soobin must have noticed the mix of a pout and scowl on Yeonwoo’s face, because he stepped closer and let their hands brush against each other again. Their noses were mere centimeters apart, and an “accidental” push from behind one of them could’ve easily caused something to happen.

“I promise, it’s fine."

‘What’s he doing?!’ was the thought racing through Yeonjun’s mind. His hand held onto the display behind him for support as he took a nervous step back, trying to distance himself from the nerd.

“Here’s your things, princess!” the worker interrupted their moment, holding out a- yep, you guessed it- pink bag decorated with sparkles and tied with a ribbon to Yeonjun.

‘Ew, I have to carry this reject Barbie purse around in public now..’

“Your girlfriend is really cute.” she gushed to Soobin while handing back his change. “I hope you two last a long time!”

‘She thinks…. we’re a couple?’ Soobin asked himself. How did she mistake him, a lowly artist, and his goddess of a muse as a couple?

On the other end of the spectrum..

What the hell??

With a beet red face, Yeonjun stomped his foot.

“I AM NOT HIS GIRLFR-!”

Soobin laced his fingers in Yeonwoo’s, pulling along his raging muse and giving the worker a quick bow before leaving.

“You stupid nerd, why did you do that?!” Yeonjun stopped in the middle of the street a little ways away from the store. He jerked his hand away from Soobin and used it to check his cheeks again.

Still warm and probably still red as hell.

“I told you I didn’t want this stuff!!” he waved around the painfully girly bag around in frustration. “And I never asked you to pay for me- why are you so freaking NICE?? I was going to pay you back for the food and avoid spending any more money but THEN you pulled that THING at the makeup store-“

“Yeonwoo, I-“ he took a step closer, his arm outstretched.

“NO!! Don’t come any closer!” Yeonjun took a wide step back. “I specifically said that this ISN'T a date, and now you have people mistaking us for a couple.. oh my god, this is the worst…” He covered his face and groaned.

 

“Do you hate me that much?”

 

The question caught his attention, making him pause in the middle of his breakdown and turn his head.

“What..?”

“I understand if you don’t like being seen with me… I don’t have to walk next to you.. or near you. I could even take you home right now- or call a cab for you.” he continued, slowly nodding. “I apologize if I was excessive or annoying or if I hindered you in any way today. After all, all I am is a stupid nerd..”

‘Get me home right now, I never want to see you again, you stupid nerd.’

It was what the Yeonjun within him wanted to say.

His heart had other plans though.

Seeing the slight pout on the artist’s lips and his watery eyes that looked like he was about to cry tugged at his heartstrings, as he soon found himself moving towards Soobin. He reached up and slowly pulled the glasses from his face, trying hard to not let his hands shake.

He swore his heart skipped several beats.

As soon as he looked into the artist’s eyes, he realized it wasn’t tears he thought he saw, but just the day’s light hitting him at the most perfect angles. Red, orange, pink, and yellow hues flashed across him, only giving Yeonjun brief moments where he could see his entire face.

And his beautiful, serious gaze fixated only on him.

Yeonjun swore he was about to melt.

“I didn’t mean what I said just now.” he spoke softly, wiping the nonexistent smudges on Soobin’s glasses and trying to avoid his stare as much as he could. “It’s just that…. when people say stuff like that.. I feel like it’ll ruin our relationship right now.”

‘I DON’T CARE!’ was what Soobin wanted to scream.

“S-Sorry, I was kind of harsh.” he apologized, finding the courage to look into his face again. “You were really only trying to be nice.. I didn’t see that.”

Soobin grabbed Yeonwoo by her wrists, earning a small gasp from her. Even the sunset and all of its colors couldn’t do her justice. In that instant she looked so soft, so vulnerable.. From her large eyes to the soft curls falling in front of her face to her pink, kissable lips… it was moments like these that made him crave alone time with her, no matter how nervous he was.

“Soobin?”

It felt like she was saying his name for the first time.

“Don’t apologize.” he finally said, guiding her hands to put his glasses back on his face. “I’m just happy that you don’t hate this stupid art nerd.” He said the last part with a smile, making Yeonwoo bite down on her bottom lip.

“Please try not to spend any more money on me…” she muttered in the quietest voice possible.

Soobin nodded and gently tugged on Yeonwoo’s arm as he continued down the street. Even though he found what happened at the makeup store unusual, he couldn’t stop the smile that now took over his face.

‘All mine.’ he looked back at his muse, whom he caught staring at him and looked away as soon as he made eye contact with her. ‘The cutest muse.’

They were just walking randomly at this point, with Soobin occasionally stopping in front of random stores and pointing out the displays. He was trying as much as he can to pique his muse’s interest, but nothing seemed to hold her attention for more than a minute.

That is, until she dug her foot into the sidewalk and stopped in front of something.

He was expecting some sort of clothing store, but instead the three story arcade loomed above him like a shadow. They had just turned the neon lights on, and he could see the sparkle in Yeonwoo’s eyes as she stared at the glass door separating her from the real world and her fantasy.

“They have the new Bloodbashers 5… with all-new graphics….? And surround-sound audio??!” Yeonjun gasped and ran up to the door. “I wonder if anyone beat my high score yet..”

“You’ve been here before?” Soobin followed him, making a face at the excessive promotional art for the game. Beefy, sweaty men wielding machetes and guns with the most intense expressions on their face, surrounded by hastily drawn zombies, or whatever those humanoid things were. He would never understand why boys were drawn to these games, nevertheless why Yeonwoo was so excited about it.

“U-Uh.. my brother tells me all about it!” Yeonjun answered, looking at the hours posted on the door. “There’s still a few more hours before it closes too…”

Another pout.

Another shot to Soobin’s heart.

“..I guess I’ll have to come back another day..” Yeonjun sighed, remembering that he was temporarily broke. And he definitely wasn’t going to go back on his word and ask the artist to borrow money.

In a single swift motion, Soobin grabbed him by the wrist, pushed open the door, and pulled him inside.

His eyes had to adjust to the darkness and the blinking neon lights before he could look at Soobin again. He could already see the small crowd that had formed around the new game, and the loud chants from the onlookers.

He was so tempted…

“Soobin, I can’t pay for these games..” Yeonjun reminded the other. “I’ll come back sometime soon- you can come if you want to, but I’ll pay for myself then.”

“Who said you were the only one playing?” Soobin asked before slipping coins into the nearest air hockey table and handing Yeonwoo one of the strikers. “Game on?”

After debating in his head whether he wanted to add to his growing debt, Yeonjun slid his backpack off and threw it down to his feet before positioning himself at the opposite end of the table.

“Game on.”


	12. tweleleleelelelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is prob one of the cutest/most wholesome chapters
> 
> why can i see this so vividly sdkljflk;sfsdksafakls

He hadn’t been this tired since he was forced to run the mile for gym class.

He had never been this triggered by the little beeps and boops from the arcade machines he was surrounded by.

He had never had as much of a headache as the one he was getting now from all the bright lights that lined his vision.

But he didn’t care.

Because all that mattered to him was keeping his muse as happy as she was now. Instead of her usual neutral expression, it was replaced by glowing cheeks and a wide smile. Her hair seemed to float every time she skipped over to a new game and every time she would clap her sweater paws together for a victory, Soobin found it to be the most adorable thing on the planet.

In Yeonjun’s point of view, he was just finally happy that he was in his element ever since ‘Yeonwoo’ came to life. There was no specific way he needed to act around the people here, because they were all weird anyway- especially if they were the type to come alone and spend all of their time on one game.

He was so comfortable that he would forget that the artist was there with him- and that he was the one PAYING for him.

So he ended up going back on his word.

But at least the nerd was having fun too, right?

.. Maybe if pummeling him at absolutely every game was considered “fun”.

First it was air hockey, then it was racing, then it was Fruit Ninja, spinners, and then first-person shooter games.

‘Yeonwoo' quickly became the new queen of the arcade, seeing how many fans she gained throughout her adventures.

Yeonjun even made a guy cry when he destroyed him with the highest score on Bloodbashers 5.

“I’ll wait for the sixth to come out so you all can have time to practice~!” he had notified his defeated challengers and onlookers, thrusting the plastic rifle into some guy’s waiting arms and twirling a strand of his wig.

Every time he lost, Soobin gained happiness whenever he saw his muse pump her fist and blurt out “SUCK IT” in a slightly deeper voice. Only she would slap her hand over her mouth and shrink within herself out of embarrassment right after.

It was a strange reaction, but he still found it cute.

But that wasn’t the only strange thing that Soobin liked.

At first, he had been waiting for Yeonwoo to finish her Bloodbasher tournament with the gaming nerds, but then he decided to try his luck at one of those old-fashioned carnival games where he had to hit the target hard enough with a mallet in order to ring the bell at the top.

Now he was hoping to hit that bell in order to draw Yeonwoo’s attention to him (because some of those gaming guys seemed to getting WAY too close) and win a good amount of tickets to be able to get something for her.

But even with the muscles he was slowly training to gain, he couldn’t make it past the three-fourth mark of the game, even after his fourth attempt.

“You’re not hitting the sweet spot.” his muse’s voice made him drop the mallet before his fifth try. “Can I try?”

“Be careful… don’t strain yourself..” he warned as he watched the other get into a preparatory stance and holding the mallet above her head. “It’s okay if you don’t get i-“

The loudest ring interrupted his sentence, following by a series of smaller clangs.

A silver bell rolled across the carpet to land right at Soobin’s feet.

Did she just…?

“Did you just…?”

“Oops……” Yeonjun tried hiding the mallet behind his back, pressing his lips into a straight line. “I think I just.. broke it?”

So much for “innocent schoolgirl”.

He quickly shoved the mallet into the hands of an open-mouthed person who just witnessed the entire scene, grabbed Soobin by the tie, and pulled him along.

Soobin stared at the back of his muse’s frame. Her legs were slim, her arms probably were too.. So how did she manage to hit the game with such force that the actual BELL came flying off?

His wandering thoughts were extinguished when he noticed that she was asking him a question.

“-those dancing games?”

Soobin and dancing were two things that could never be in the same sentence.

“Um, yes?”

No idea why he did that.

“Then let’s challenge each other!” she leaped over the supports for the game, which was blasting obnoxious pop music that Soobin would never listen to on his own time. He climbed over, holding onto the support for dear life.

“Do you have any preferences for songs?” Yeonjun asked, stepping on the arrows to shuffle through the list. “Or modes?”

“Not really, no..?”

He would regret saying that within the next five minutes.

He even started sweating when the intro to the song started blasting in his ear. ‘Russian Roulette’, he read from the screen. Probably from some girl group he never listened to.

When the arrows started moving up on the screen, Soobin’s soul left his body. He didn’t know that his mind and his feet could become so detached, but they were. He would hit the right arrow every few seconds, but by the time the song reached the chorus, he was already keeling over on the metal support bar.

“Tapping out already?” Yeonjun asked, hitting every single arrow with grace and ease. He wasn’t even looking at the screen when he asked the question, instead giving Soobin a look of concern.

“I think this is better off as a solo..” he panted, stepping off the machine while still leaning against the bar. All he did for the next minute was watch as his muse made it through the song effortlessly, even humming along to it and adding lyrics at one point.

♪ Oh you still say, love is game, you tell me but your voice is shaking ♪, the song went, describing the situation that Soobin knew too well. ♪ Past the playful eyes

I see you, not knowing what to do… ♪

He wasn’t surprised at all when a giant ‘A’ grade appeared on screen, followed by the sound of tickets flying out of the machine.

“We should go cash these in.” Yeonjun held up his plastic bag, which was ready to burst with the tickets he had collected since he had stepped into the building. “I can save the credits for next time too- I mean, if you want to go again…”

An vaguely unofficial date in a darkened room full of loud electronic sounds, way-too-large birthday parties, and weird gaming nuts?

“O-Of course I want to go again!” Soobin furiously nodded. “-with you!!”

Yeonjun wasn’t expecting such an eager answer, but went along with it. A bunch of hypothetical scenarios played out in his head, including one where he would win a tournament over one of the gaming guys and pull the artist in for a congratulatory k-

‘What the HELL, Yeonjun?’

“Hey, nerd, how did you manage to hit those sweet cheeks?”

Some kid around the same age as them smirked at them from one of the fair game booths, giving Yeonjun the grossest wink he had seen by far.

He gagged.

“Excuse me?” Soobin stepped forward, placing his hands on the booth. “What did you just call her?”

The kid chuckled away.

Now he usually didn’t identity as a fighter- he couldn’t care less about the names others called him. It was when they started harassing his muse that things got dirty.

“Soobin, don’t.” Yeonjun warned, trying pull him back but facing quite a strong resistance.

“If you manage to win a prize for your girl here I’ll take that comment back.” the kid leaned against the table, waiting for an answer. “All you have to do is shoot three in the center.”

Soobin rolled up his sleeves, adjusted his glasses, and picked up the play gun from the table while trying to stop his hands from shaking. He slapped down five dollars onto the table and aimed for the target set up in front of him.

Yeonjun winced when he shot, completely missing the circle and instead making a hole in the back of the booth itself.

The next two shots weren’t better.

Neither were the next ten or so.

In a span of five minutes, Soobin must have spent at least forty dollars in the game. The kid was counting the cash and snickering at the agitated artist in front of him.

“Soobin, it’s not worth it.. You don’t have to deal with this ass anymore.” Yeonjun put a hand on his shoulder, emphasizing the name he called the kid.

“Is that any way for a lady to talk?” he sneered.

Yeonjun rolled his eyes.

“Yeonwoo, I have to win.. at least once!” Soobin argued, raising his arm to shoot and missing. Again.

For a few seconds, Yeonjun wondered what to do, before deciding that he needed to swallow all of his dignity and put his pride on the line if he wanted to help the nerd out. He skipped over to the kid running the booth and hit him on the shoulder. Just a little too hard for good measure.

“Hey cutie, do you think I could try shooting~?” he used his gross cutesy voice, rocking back and forth on his feet.

“Now, a pretty innocent thing like you shouldn’t be handling guns.” the kid teased, running his hand through his hair before reaching down and grabbing his crotch. “But you know, honey, there ARE other forms of payment if you want your boyfriend to go free- you catchin’ my drift?”

Ew.

Why was he doing this again?

“Oh, don’t worry! I can take care of myself!” he kept up his act. “How about a little wager?”

“Oh? What kind of wager?”

Soobin looked over, interested.

“Let’s just say, I get all three shots in the center. You give me a prize, and my-“ he paused, before getting out, “-boyfriend all his money back.”

“And if you don’t get ALL three..” the kid bit his lip and gave Yeonjun another gross attempt at a wink. “You know what you gotta do, babe.”

“Got it~” he tried hard not to cringe, giving him an innocent smile before raising the gun and closing one eye.

Soobin jumped when three loud shots rang through the air, and he turned to see three holes, right in the center of the target. The kid had fallen off his stool, his eyes wide as he retreated to the corner of the stand.

“Wha-?”

“I want that one!” Yeonjun pointed to the biggest corgi plush on display, hung up behind the target board. The kid struggled to get up, but he managed to take the plush down and hand it over, along with the money Soobin had previously wasted. With a swish of his skirt and a flip of his hair, Yeonjun left with a “Thanks sweetie, bye~” and an open-mouthed artist in tow.

 

\- - -

 

He was still thinking back to the three perfectly placed bullet holes on the board, and then he looked back at his happy, giant-plushie-hugging muse.

Soobin was quite amazed that this was the same “girl" that was terrified of fictional zombies just a few weeks ago. How did she go from a shining, pistol-wielding goddess to some pure, blushing princess?

...Variety is the spice of life, right?

It was already dark by the time they left the arcade, and the air between them was reduced to random hums from Yeonjun and small coughs from Soobin.

“So you know that I just said you’re my boyfriend because I was going along with what that guy was saying, right?” Yeonjun broke the silence with the sudden question. It had actually been bothering him for a while but he had tried to keep it to himself.

Emphasis on ‘tried’.

“Yeah, of course.” was the simple answer from Soobin. “The thing you pulled with the gun and that kid was amazing, you know that?”

‘Of course it was, it’s ME.’

“O-Oh.. t-thanks.” he muttered, growing weak for the artist’s compliments again. “It’s the least I could do since you spent so much on me today..”

“It’s not a problem, don’t worry about it.”

Yeonjun nodded.

Walking in silence again.

They couldn’t tell if it was awkward or peaceful.

“So what made the waiter think that I would only be able to eat a salad?” Yeonjun began, attempting to start something. “Does he think that all girls eat like literal birds?”

“I’m pretty sure that girls have a second stomach just for desserts.” Soobin added, remembering how easily five cups of gelato disappeared back at the restaurant.

His muse’s laugh was like music to his ears.

“Judging from the way he could barely carry two menus, I bet you his diet is only salads and self-hatred.” Yeonjun continued, the two of them busting into snickers and chuckles.

The banter and stupid humor between them bothered Yeonjun.

He couldn’t figure out why at first, but then it hit him.

All of these jokes and moments he had with this nerd..

It was all as Yeonwoo..

…his FAKE, supposedly temporary persona.

Although he didn’t know why this bothered him THIS MUCH.

“Isn’t this around your neighborhood?” Soobin stopped in the middle of the quiet intersection. “Should you…”

“Actually.. c-can y-you walk me to my house?” Yeonjun asked quietly, as if there were people listening to them. “It’s dark… and….. I’m scared something is gonna happen.”

Which was partially true.

His real purpose for asking the artist to walk with him a bit longer was to use him to figure out why his feelings for Ryujin weren’t as strong as they were before. And why sweaty temples and red cheeks were now reserved for HIM.

Yeonjun sneezed after a chilly wind blew up his legs.

“This goddamn skirt…” he grunted in a voice an octave deeper, not realizing his mistake.

“Yeonwoo..?”

He coughed a few times before returning to his fake voice.

“Sorry, I think I might be coming down with a cold or something..” he waved it off, sniffling.

On instinct, Soobin took off his blazer and draped it over her shoulders, even pulling her closer.

“Soobin, you’ll catch one too!!” she tried wriggling out. Soobin’s heart flew at the thought that she cared about his health so much, but it just made him want to protect her even more.

“I’m fine.” he flashed another one of his killing smiles that made Yeonjun simply nod and let himself be enveloped in the heat of the other’s school blazer all the way up to his doorsteps.

Neither of them spoke until Soobin finally opened his mouth and tucked his blazer under his arm.

“I had a really great time today.”

‘Yeah, that WAS pretty fun…… with you.’

“Me too." Yeonjun smiled softly, puffing out one of his cheeks and watching as his breath started becoming little clouds. “Thank you, Soobin.”

Her speaking his name was better than heaven, he bet.

“So.. I’ll see you in school?”

“Yep, for sure!!”

Soobin turned to leave, slipping on his blazer again, before an overwhelming emotion took over him like what happened earlier with the Art Club. But this time, instead of it being scathing and unpleasant, it was warm.

 

Warm like the sunset earlier.

 

Warm like his cheeks after every time Yeonwoo smiled in his direction.

 

An invisible force came from within him, and took over his bodily actions.

 

“Yeonwoo?” he called out.

“..Yes?”

He hopped up the steps and held Yeonwoo by her shoulders.

 

Before he leaned in and pressed his lips on her forehead.

 

He lingered there for a few seconds, before pulling away and gulping when he saw Yeonwoo’s wide eyes and gaping mouth.

“O-Oh.. I….. I’m… sorry.. sorry, good night.” he muttered before stepping back, turning, and sprinting into the night.

From his place on his stairs, Yeonjun’s shaky hands reached up to brush his forehead. As soon as he fully processed what just happened, he ducked inside, kicked off his shoes, and threw himself onto the bed, attempting to hide his burning face and his burning desire for a certain artist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyways russian roulette is the superior red velvet title track  
> at least for the RED tracks
> 
> if we're talking about VELVET its def bad boy oof


	13. thirTEEN!!

It was weird because she wasn’t usually bored out of her mind this early.

“Both Yeonwoo and Soobin aren’t here…” Ryujin groaned, picking her head up from her arms. “Where could the both of them be?”

Of course, she did see what happened yesterday in Art Club. The whole scene with Soobin kicking out the pervert and pulling Yeonwoo out was quite dramatic, and left Ryujin to fantasize about what her two friends were doing afterwards.

‘Did he just walk her home? Did they go somewhere together afterwards?’ she thought. ‘What if they DID go on a date? And then they would go back to Soobin’s place… maybe THAT’S why they were both late…..’

“Stop it with your dirty fantasies, you!!” she thought aloud, hitting herself on the side of her head before she could start imagining situations with her two friends.

“Shin Ryujin.” the teacher spoke up. “Do you know where Soobin and Yeonwoo might be?”

“Ah… no, I don’t.” she answered, bowing. “Sorry.”

The teacher nodded and made a mark on her sheet, before she dropped her pen due to the sliding door of the classroom opening with a loud smack.

“Sorry, I’m late, teacher!!!” two voices announced, perfectly in sync.

Sure enough, Ryujin looked up to see both Yeonwoo and Soobin in the doorway. Soobin’s hair looked impossibly messier than usual, and she could see the extra concealer Yeonwoo used to cover up deep dark circles.

“You two, really….” their teacher sighed, scribbling out whatever she just wrote down. “Take a seat. Don’t be late again.”

“Thank you, teacher!” the two bowed and yelled in perfect harmony again, giving each other unreadable looks afterwards.

Ryujin found the synchronization adorable.

Both Yeonwoo and Soobin tried to get into the classroom, but alas, the two of them couldn’t fit into the classroom door at once. They tried a few more times, before Soobin stepped back and gestured for his muse to go first.

Instead of the usual scoff and hair flip Yeonjun entered the room with, he scuffled over to his seat, and used his hands to check his cheeks.

‘….WHY ARE THEY STILL WARM???’

“Good morning, Yeonwoo!” Ryujin greeted.

He jumped in shock, putting a hand over his chest.

“Oh…. good morning, Ryujin.”

What happened to her usual perky greeting from Yeonwoo?

“Are you okay, Yeonwoo? A lot of stuff happened yesterday..”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW A LOT OF STUFF HAPPENED YESTERDAY?” he asked a little too loudly, pressing his back against his desk as everyone in the classroom turned to give him strange looks. “I mean… yeah…. art club was wild…”

‘Yeonwoo…. what…'

As Yeonjun experienced an early-morning breakdown, Soobin seemed like he had turned into a robot. He had always been quiet, but he had never been as.. non responsive as he was today. Ryujin saw him turn slightly towards the window and stare right at the sunlight for a few seconds, before squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing them.

He felt like he was going blind.

Both literally and figuratively.

He was still trying to figure out where the hell the sudden urge to do what he did last night came from. He could’ve left her on her doorstep and left like a normal person. But no, he just  _had_ to grab her and kiss her on the forehead.

He also felt stupid that he was getting this nervous over a FOREHEAD kiss, but nevertheless, any contact with his muse was significant.

The fact that she didn’t push him away and kick him straight in his little Michelangelo was significant too.

Yeonjun’s eyes were averted towards his own desk, as he found the little circles and swirls in the wood awfully interested.

Like Soobin, he too, felt stupid.

He had done so much stuff before.

This was only a goddamn kiss.

On the forehead.

From some art nerd.

But why was the sound of his own blood pumping taking over his hearing and drowning out the lesson going on?

“…Miss Yeonwoo!”

He sat straight up, making his desk shake.

“Can you tell me exactly what King Sejung implemented during his rule?”

Shit.

“Um…. I…”

“You should’ve remembered this from your history homework last night.”

Last night…

“He invented the modern Hangul writing system, teacher.”

He could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he heard his voice.

“Thank you, Soobin. Maybe Yeonwoo needs some of your help with the class material outside of class.” the teacher emphasized the last three words, arousing a chuckles and giggles throughout the classroom.

Yeonjun shifted around in his seat, and turned his head to glanced behind him.

A little smile from the artist sent his sweater paws flying straight up to cover his face.

Oh.. he was done for.

 

\- - -

 

Soobin felt like he was deprived of something for the rest of the week.

Was it because he wasn’t in the mood to eat anything?

Or because he hadn’t touched his sketchbook in over forty eight hours?

None of that.

Every time he would step within five feet of his muse, she would notice and quickly turn around or look down.

It was weird because she was usually only shy when they were alone.

But now that she was doing this in front of other people..

His muse’s cute side could only be seen by him.

Yeonwoo was HIS muse.

He had been lurking behind her while she left class, as her pencil case slipped out of her bag and landed on the floor. Before her fan club could gather around it like a pack of angry lions, he scooped it up, and held it closely. The rest of the boys threw curses and annoyances at him, catching the attention of the muse herself.

“Did one of you just take my pencil- oh.” she started, annoyance obvious in her tone. Her face softened, showing one of the most innocent expressions Soobin had seen Yeonwoo had while she was in school. It was very similar to what she looked like after…. his.. kiss….

Never mind that.

“You dropped it.”

Yeonjun stood there, not knowing what else to do other than stare at the artist and jog back the memory of the thing he did nights ago.

After almost an entire minute of his muse not doing anything, he gulped before stepping forward, taking one of her hands and placing the case into her palm.

“I’ll see you tomorrow..?” a statement turning into an unnecessary question.

It took him quite a while before a sound even left his mouth.

“Y-Yeah.”

‘ _Why are you stuttering?_ ’

“Tomorrow.”

‘ _Yeonjun, you weak ass pansy.._ ’

“Thanks..”

‘ _You’re absolutely done for._ ’

There was a twisting sensation in his stomach as he watched Soobin brush past him and head for the doors. A sensation that made him want to run up behind him and stop him from leaving him behind. And then Soobin would grab his face, slowly lean in, and-

“Yeonjun, NO!!”

Groups of kids whipped their head around, surprised to hear the name. They opened happened to see ‘Yeonwoo’ with her hands over her mouth.

‘Nice job, stupid.’

He held his phone up to his ear.

“Uh, no, Yeonjun.. _oppa!!_ ” 

It was weird using his own name in third person.

"I’m not bringing back dinner for you later, go get it yourself!” he continued his act, making his way to the school doors as fast as he could. All he wanted to do was get home as fast as could and wallow in self despair.

And think about Soobin….

‘Nope. Nopenopenopenopenopenopenope-‘

Wooseok had other plans for his new object of interest though.

He caught Yeonjun by his backpack, finding the strength to pull him back and snake his hand around his waist.

‘Ew, he’s touching me.’

“What’s this I hear about Yeonjun?” he asked, combing his fingers through his hair. “I’ll be seeing your brother tomorrow for his midterm, right?”

Why was he so unfazed by this asshole and his hand on his waist when he was so stressed over a nerd’s FOREHEAD kiss?

“Midterms…?” he knew that ‘Yeonwoo’ was excused due to arriving later than everyone, but he completely forgot that the REAL him still had responsibilities.

The thought of him returning to school without having to wake up a hour or two to go through Yeonwoo’s routine made him look forward to the extra sleep. No skincare, no makeup, no annoying breeze blowing up his legs and the constant worry that his skirt would fly up, whether it was due to nature or Lia.

But the thing that he cursed at himself for working about..

He wasn’t sure if Soobin hated his real persona or just didn’t even know he existed.

‘He _should_  know you exist, you’re the Golden Hyung!!’

Did that name even mean anything to Soobin, though?

‘Doesn’t matter. Either way, Yeonjun IS COMING BACK!!!'

“Since he’s sick or some shit they’re making him and other ‘special’ kids take it earlier than everyone else.” Wooseok elaborated. “I was wondering though.. I heard you were having some trouble in history?”

The hell, when?

“Do you want a…” the hand on his waist moved further down. “..private tutor, Yeonwoo?”

Oh, hell no.

“Well..” he expertly spun out of the position he was in, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his face. “Considering the fact that you have lower than Cs in most of your classes, I think you’d better sit your ass down before you offer to tutor anyone.” He started towards the door again, rolling his eyes and sighing.

“I bet that ass wants to sit down on something else.” he heard Wooseok snicker to one of his followers.

Ew.

“Oh, Wooseok~” he called out, twirling a piece of his hair.

The other perked up, a bit surprised that Yeonjun had heard him.

“You changed your mind, baby?"

“Say that again and I’ll drag yours all the way back to wherever you crawled out of~!♡”

It was unfortunate that he wouldn’t be able to see the expression on Wooseok’s face tomorrow as Yeonjun..

 

\- - -

 

To ➡️ Soob: Soobin!! text me your address again!

To ➡️ Ryujin: You forgot it again? You’ve been over a bunch of times already.

To ➡️ Soob: you know how i’m easily distracted…. ㅠㅠ

To ➡️ Soob: send me it if you want these supplies!!!

To ➡️ Ryujin: Fine.

Ryujin pumped her fist as she typed in his address, following the little blue line all the way to the front door of the artist’s house. She barely gave two knocks to the door before it flew open, Soobin’s face popping out.

“That was quick.”

“Would’ve been quicker if you had just sent me the address in advance.” Ryujin pushed past him and ran into his studio/bedroom, dumping the contents of her plastic bag out on his workspace. “Soobin, what did you even need all of this stuff for?”

She found it strange that he had requested her to get some faux jewels, wire, and a hot glue gun instead of the normal paints and brushes. What could he possibly be making with this stuff?

“I’m making.. stuff.” he answered simply, nudging her aside as he took his seat. He pulled out sketches of whatever he was working on and laid them across the table, taking a deep breath and perusing over the designs.

Ryujin snatched one off the table and held it up to the light streaming in through the window.

“Oh my gosh, this is so PRETTY!!” she squealed, turning the paper different ways as Soobin tried to grab it from her hands. “Let me guess- you’re making it for your muse~?”

The way she said the last word made him cringe.

“..Yes.” he answered in the quietest voice possible. He managed to get the paper out of Ryujin’s hands and carefully smoothed it out before hanging it up in front of his workspace. “Now please let me work on it, and hopefully I can give it to her tomorrow.”

“Aww, I’m sure she’s gonna love it.” Ryujin ruffled his hair, earning a grumble from the artist. “I’m pretty sure she’s gonna love whatever you make, you talented art nerd.”

“ArtIST, not art nerd.” he corrected.

“I see, art nerd is Yeonwoo’s special little nickname for you.”

Art nerd was triggered.

“Please stop talking.” Soobin took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. She may be one of his closest friends, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t a pain in the ass.

♪ Yeonwoo and Soobin sitting in a tree~ ♪ she began to sing, a devilish smile appearing on her face as she swung her legs back and forth over Soobin’s bed.

“That includes singing!”

♪ K-I-S-S-I-N-G! ♪

“Ryujin, I mean it!!”

♪ First comes love, then comes marriage.. ♪

“Don’t you dare-!”

♪ Then comes a baby in the baby carriage! ♪

Soobin’s face exploded in a vibrant red shade, spreading to the tips of his ears.

He really shouldn’t thinking about marriage, nevertheless a baby…. with…

“Whoa dude, you’re really red.”

“I’m FINE.” he emphasized the last word, fumbling with his glasses before rummaging through a drawer and throwing excessive bags of snacks at the girl. “There. Distract yourself. There’s food downstairs too.”

“FOOD!"

With this genius method, he managed to score three hours of quiet time.


	14. fourTEEN!!

He cracked open his eyes at the first light that came in through his blinds. He thanked the heavens that his usual alarm didn’t go off, and snuggled further into his blankets as he heard thumping. Around this time Lia would be pulling the sheets off of him and dragging him into the shower. Yeonjun sighed in content as he heard the sound of the shower turn on.

These extra two hours were absolute bliss for him.

When he did wake up, he made sure to take his time to stretch and sit in bed checking his phone before actually getting up to find his old uniform.

He had a mini heart attack when he couldn’t find his uniform trousers.

Because there was no way in hell he was wearing a skirt as Yeonjun.

“Looking for this?” Lia’s head popped into his room, holding up his pants, neatly folded. “Looks like the Golden Hyung is making a comeback.”

“How was waking up without Yeonwoo?” he chuckled, catching the pants as Lia almost chucked them to him.

“Oh, I miss her already.” she gave him a tight smile, rolling her eyes. “Breakfast is on the table. Just grab it before we leave.”

He got his uniform on in record time, even leaving time for himself to wax and comb back his hair.

What? It was the first time in a while that Yeonjun was coming back.. he wanted to make sure people knew he was still ALIVE.

“Let’s go.” he grabbed his backpack and the breakfast wrap laying on the table before heading out the door, not even bothering to wait for his sister.

After she almost got hit by the door and tripped, Lia cursed to herself when she realized that Yeonjun didn’t have a skirt to flip up today. Instead she settled for grabbing him by the ear and pulling him the rest of the way to the school gates.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, OWW!!!” he complained, finally free from his sister’s clutches. “What?!”

Lia simply looked at her brother and scoffed, flipping her hair in his face before she jogged over to her own friends.

But not before she turned back and added, “I like Yeonwoo better.”

A few seconds after he got a text from her too.

From Lia: Don’t do anything stupid today, stupid.

“That little….” Yeonjun grumbled. This was before he noticed the rousing stares and whispers from the students.

“Is that….”

“Someone said he transferred.”

“My friend told me he moved to America..”

“What’s he doing here?”

“Did Yeonwoo not come today?”

Instead of wanting to hide his face and run like the day of Yeonwoo’s debut, he simply wore his signature smirk and held his head up, sauntering into school with his hands in his pockets. He sucked in all of the whispers and attention that he hadn’t experienced in over a month, as much as he could before Yeonjun disappeared again.

The Golden Hyung was back.

And no one could stop him.

 

\- - -

 

...The term “no one” was used loosely.

His daily waves to the boys were replaced by tiny smirks and winks to the girls who looked shocked that he was back. Despite what Yuna had pulled with him before, he seemed to be getting a pretty good reception.

Should he be thanking himself? No, his fake persona?

His ears were filled with coos and love calls like “Yeonjun oppa, I’ve missed you~”, “Yeonjun where did you go for so long~?” or a simple “Why didn’t you ever text me back, asshole?”. He barely said anything though, simply brushing back his hair and giving his killing smile to whoever was in his path.

The boys weren’t quiet though.

“Where’s Yeonwoo?”

“This is the first time she’s been out..”

“Should we ask… him..?”

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY THAT THEY’RE THE SAME PERSON?!”

Oh, Taehyun..

“My dear sister was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the schoolwork and decided to stay home for the day.” he automatically answered their questions and interrupted Taehyun, surprising both the guys and the girls. “But she did tell me that she'll still gladly take your lunchbox offers when she returns tomorrow.”

The male group buzzed in anticipation.

“You just got here, leaving so soon?”

Ugh.

Him.

“Welcome back, Yeonjun.” Wooseok blocked his way, obnoxiously chewing his gum and shoving his hands in his pockets. “How has your weak pansy ass been faring at home?”

“Considering the fact that I’m still alive and kicking, I don’t think that’s a fair term.” he shot back, mentally relieved that Wooseok couldn’t grab him or touch him while he was himself. “Since when did you care so much? You in love with me or something?”

The distorted look on his face was so utterly satisfying.

“I would never be in love with your gay ass.” he spat, crossing his arms.

“Gay?” Yeonjun threw his arm over the shoulders of the nearest female student, making her cover her hands with her mouth and visibly blush. Yep, he still had his charm. “Please elaborate where.”

“If anything, your sister is exactly my type.” Wooseok tried another angle. “She’s so cute that I can’t wait to hear how she sounds in my room.”

Yeonjun burst out laughing, clutching his stomach and hitting a locker in the process.

“W-What are you laughing at?”

“You’re far from my sister’s type, trust me.” he got out between laughs, mockingly wiping tears from his eyes. “And if you ever try something funny with her, I’m just gonna warn you that she can probably defend herself just fine. You’ll probably end up dead in a dumpster somewhere, so.”

“We’ll see about that!!” Wooseok called out as Yeonjun pushed past him and continued his way to class. “H-Hey, don’t walk away while I’m speaking, asshole!!!”

“I’m not your little bitch~” Yeonjun whistled, giving him a wave without even looking back.

The school said he had to go take his test in the teacher's office, but there was no harm in hanging out in his classroom for a little while before, right? He could get to see his old squad, Ryujin, and Soobin as Yeonjun before he le-

Wait, no!!

Scratch that last one.

Yeonjun had nothing to do with the stupid art nerd. He WANTED nothing to do with the stupid art nerd. And he wasn’t about to risk his reputation in order to talk to him.

His heart couldn’t help but sink down to his stomach when he stepped into the classroom and saw that the artist's seat was empty. It was unusual because he was usually there, head bowed down until he saw Yeonwoo and greeted her with a shy smile or a quiet “Good morning, Yeonwoo”.

‘Where could he be..?’

“Yeonjun?”

He almost forgot about his SOLE goal.

Ryujin stood behind him, wearing a blank expression on her face. He swore he saw a tiny little sparkle in her eyes, just like the one she had the night he stumbled upon her balcony.

Or was he just being stupid.

“Good morning, Ryujin!” he smiled and greeted a little too excitedly. “Uh… long time no see, right? How is everything? Are you doing okay in your classe-“

“What are you doing here?” she asked in the most uninterested voice he had heard by far.

Ouch.

“I have to take the midterm earlier than everyone else since I’m on.. medical leave!” he continued, even following Ryujin to her seat. “But I feel so much better now that I’ve rested.”

“Ah, okay..” she nodded politely, glancing over at Yeonwoo’s empty seat. “Did your sister come today?”

“Lia..? Yeah, she’s in her classroo-“

“Yeonwoo.” Ryujin corrected.

Oh.

“She’s… not feeling well so she stayed home.”

“Ah.”

The one word answer was like a shot to his heart and his pride.

Was ‘Yeonwoo’ actually making this entire situation worse?

“By the way, Yeonjun.”

‘Ohmygod what now?’

“Y-Yeah?”

“Yeonwoo told me about what you said to Yuna.” her blank face turned into a warm smile, that made the same fuzzy feeling from that night reappear in Yeonjun’s stomach. “Thank you for that.”

‘YES!!!’

“That was nothing!” he nodded quickly, his excitement growing. “I’d do anything for you, we’re….. friends after all, right?”

It took some time for Ryujin to respond, which made Yeonjun’s anxiety grow with each passing second.

‘You idiot, why’d you ask that?!’

‘How is she supposed to respond??’

‘Hopefully she won’t respond at all if it’s bad…'

“Of course!” she finally answered, nodding and smiling. “Any friend- or brother, in this case- of Yeonwoo is my friend!”

Oh bless the heavens.

Bless Yeonwoo, he never thought he would hear himself saying.

Now the next phase that he needed to move onto in his plan.

Make Ryujin, a girl that likes girls, fall in love with him, a boy.

Hopefully Yeonwoo could work wonders in that aspect too.

“Yeonjun!!!”

An arm around his shoulder scared him, as he turned to face Mark and the rest of his squad coming through the door. One by one, they all tackled him and messed up his hair as their leader was finally back. Each member was slowly starting to drift away from the central group, but just the presence of Yeonjun renewed the bond that they all had before.

“The Golden Hyung is back!!!” Jihoon patted him on the back. “Y’know we all thought you were dead.”

“Yeonjun!!!” Mark jumped onto his back, pressing his face into his neck. “THE GROUP IS WHOLE AGAIN!”

“Mark, could you be any more clingy?” Lucas grabbed the kid by the collar of his blazer and pulled him back. He instantly went for a fist bump and a slap on the back with Yeonjun. “Welcome back dude."

“Long time no see.” Woojin pulled Yeonjun into a basic bro-hug, going straight into their handshake afterwards. “It’s… just you today?”

“Yeah, Yeonwoo is out for today..” he noticed that Woojin’s mouth pressed into a straight line as he gave him the answer, so he slung his arms over his shoulders and patted him gently. “Hey. Don’t get too attached to my sis- she’s hiding a bunch of stuff, trust me.” He emphasized the last two words, hoping that Woojin would just give up his mild crush on his “sister” right then and there.

The teacher walked in and clapped her hands loudly.

“Welcome back Mr. Choi, I see that you’ve returned for midterms. The proctors are waiting for you in the teacher’s office, I suggest you make your way down there now.” she greeted without even looking up from her notes.

“Good luck dude, hopefully we can go out later for drinks if you’re up for that.” Jihoon  suggested, waiting for a response. “I mean.. if you’re feeling okay and everything.”

“I feel fine!!” Yeonjun gave them a thumbs-up. He knew that he really shouldn’t be drinking, but it was his first day back as Yeonjun, he should give himself a reward, right?

Before turning to leave the room, an overwhelming urge came over him.

He put his hand on Ryujin’s desk, leaning in so that she could hear him whisper.

“Hey Ryujin, my sister wanted to talk to some kid that sits behind her named Soobin..” he kept up his act of brother-that-hasn’t-been-to-school-because-of-a-mysterious-medical-condition, even scratching his head when he mentioned the artist’s name. “Do you have any idea where he is?”

Even he didn’t know why he was bothering to ask about some nerd.

Soobin wasn’t associated with Yeonjun in any way,

But ‘Yeonwoo’ admitted that she was mildly worried.

“Oh, he’s excused for an art competition this morning! He’ll be back at break time so you can probably catch him then.” she answered with a smile.

“Ah.. I see. Thanks!” he gave her a little wave before leaving the classroom, feeling unusually giddy about break time.

Ryujin was left thinking about how Yeonwoo and her brother greeted her and waved in the exact same way.

Not to mention they were about the same height..

‘Eh, they’re siblings.’ she shrugged, leaning her head into her hands.

 

\- - -

 

Soobin had spent around fifteen minutes trying to tie the perfect ribbon for his box, and by the time he had watched countless Youtube tutorials and even asked strangers on the bus for help, he barely made it into school before lunch period was over.

He stumbled into the classroom, soaking from the downpour outside, and almost ran into a group of girls on his way to his desk. He looked around wildly to see if Yeonwoo had witnessed his embarrassing entrance, but all he saw was Ryujin giggling from her seat.

“What are you laughing at?” he side-eyed her, purposely shaking his hair out near her so the water droplets would fly into her face.

“You’re like a wet puppy.” she shielded herself from the water. “By the way, bad news, buddy. Yeonwoo isn’t here today.”

He glanced to the box he held in his hands, to the empty seat in front of him. Soobin pushed out his lower lip into a pout, although he could simply give his muse the gift tomorrow.

But half a school day with Yeonwoo?

He wasn’t sure how was going to get through the rest of class.

“Her brother is here, though.” Ryujin added.

Oh yeah, she had a brother….

“Yeonjun?” he confirmed, furrowing his brows. He hadn’t heard the guy’s name around in over a month, nevertheless seen him around school. But even when he was in school he never really saw him around- they were in different social circles, which meant they were pretty much in different worlds. The last time he had directly spoken to him was a snarky comment after he had witnessed the jock-but-not reject some poor girl in the hallway. “That’s surprising, what’s he doing back here..?”

“He had to take tests or something. Maybe you can ask him to give the thing to Yeonwoo?”

“Not a chance.” Soobin protested, hugging the box to his chest. “I’m not trusting this to that guy. Not in a million years.”

“He doesn’t seem as… arrogant as Yuna made him seem? He was really nice to me today.” Ryujin tilted her head in confusion. “And it’s her BROTHER, what’s he gonna do?”

“Ryujin, you need to be careful around guys like him. They’ll pick you up and drop you quicker than lightning.”

“Alright dad, thanks for the lecture.” she rolled her eyes. “So are you gonna wait until tomorrow or whenever Yeonwoo comes back?”

“I’ll…. deliver it to her personally. It’ll give me a chance to check up on her and see if she’s okay too.” he decided, his glasses slightly bouncing on his nose and he nodded to himself.

“Aw, our baby Soobin is all grown up and becoming a man~” Ryujin reached out and squeezed one of his cheeks. “I’m telling you, she’ll love it.”

“I really hope so….” he safely placed the box into his locker, making sure the gift wouldn’t be crushed by his various sketchpads and drawing supplies inside.

Students began to file in from lunch and visiting their friends’ classrooms as the break neared its end. One of the people that entered was Yeonjun, at the center of his crew with a juice box in hand. As soon as he looked up and saw Soobin, he broke from his friends and started towards him. He could already feel his heartbeat quickening and his palms becoming slippery.

“I-“ was all Yeonjun got out before he clamped his mouth shut and started sweating bullets. How was he supposed to saw what Yeonwoo wanted to say if he was Yeonjun right now? “You’re.. Soobin, right?”

Soobin didn’t realize he was talking to him until Ryujin gently nudged him and nodded her head towards him. It took him a few seconds to formulate an answer.

“Um.. yes…?”

‘Why is he talking to me…?’

“H-Hi, I’m Yeonwoo’s brother, Yeonjun.” he awkwardly stuck his hand out to the artist, not knowing what else to do.

“Yeonjun, what-“ Woojin started before Lucas pulled him back, wanting to see what exactly was going down. The rest of the classroom looked on in interest.

Soobin looked at his hand, then at his face, and then to Ryujin. After receiving a shrug from her, he simply shook Yeonjun’s hand, trying to use the least contact possible.

But even this simple little action made Yeonjun turn bright red and caused his head to start spinning. It was the first contact he had with him ever since he walked him home from the arcade that night. But even he knew how ridiculous blushing over a handshake was.

“U-Um… Yeonwoo said.. I-I mean, Yeonwoo told me to tell you that…” he stammered endlessly, trying to find the right topic and the right words to use. He didn’t know what he was going to talk to the artist about, he just wanted to talk to him, to get his attention.

But he wasn’t Yeonwoo..

“S-She didn’t know you had an art competition today.” he finally got out a coherent sentence, wincing at Soobin’s raised eyebrow. “How’d you do.. if I may ask...?”

“Who the hell is this, Yeonjun never talks like that..!”  he heard Mark whisper.

“Especially to some nerd…” Jihoon added.

“….I placed second and I’m moving onto regionals in the next few weeks.” he answered warily, not exactly sure why Yeonjun was asking him so many questions, or why his conversation with him lasted over three seconds.

“Really??!” a smile took over Yeonjun’s face, as he clasped his hands together. “That’s great!!”

“Yeonjun, what the fuck….” Lucas breathed.

“Um.. thanks..?” Soobin tried to smile, but it came out as a mixture between a pout and some form of teeth baring. It wasn’t pretty though.

But Yeonjun found it the most adorable thing on the planet.

Which was why he stepped forward, wrapped his arms around the artist's shoulders, and squeezed.

Hard.

The collective gasp throughout the classroom echoed Soobin’s thoughts.

‘What….. the…. hell.'

With his eyes closed, all he felt was the warm fuzzy feeling in his own stomach as well as the warmth from the other’s body. This was all he wanted- it didn’t matter if he was Yeonjun or Yeonwoo. It was like they had never been apart, as Yeonjun’s breath slowed and all he could hear was his own heartbeat.

His moment was interrupted when Soobin put both of his hands on Yeonjun’s chest and pushed him off with as much force as he could.

Yeonjun stumbled back, as he watched Soobin pat down his uniform and look at him with confusion, surprise, and some.. fear?

Before he could actually process what he had just done and where he had just done it, he could feel something wet in his eyes. And before he could stop and think about how he should be feeling, he felt the fresh tears slip out of his eyes and down his cheeks.

‘He.. pushed me….’

The class grew quiet.

“..Yeonjun….?” Woojin half-whispered in surprise.

“But.. the Golden Hyung never.. cries…” Jihoon stared, open-mouthed.

As soon as he saw the tears Soobin’s expression of bewilderment turned to one of concern.

“O-Oh. Yeonjun, I didn’t…” he began.

But Yeonjun had already pushed past his old squad and scurried out of the classroom.

The students collectively stared at Soobin, who simply cleared his throat, fixed his tie, and ducked his head down in his desk.

 

\- - -

 

He simply couldn’t control his emotions or his tears when he left his classroom, so Yeonjun was basically sniffling down the hall, not even caring as students from other years and teachers gave him strange looks.

Yes, it was ridiculous that the Golden Hyung was crying because a nerd had rejected a very unwelcome hug.

But the more he thought about it..

If Soobin ever found out about ‘Yeonwoo’…

Would he react that same way?

….He didn’t want to think about it.

At this point he wasn’t sure if it was Yeonjun or Yeonwoo that was being displayed for the world to see.

Because his emotions and his mind was all jumbled at the moment, he didn’t even care that he had just walked into his sister’s first year classroom in full-blown tears. As soon as Lia looked up from her math workbook and saw her teacher trying to (very gently) urge her brother out of the classroom, she stood up and dragged him out into the hallway, the tips of her ears turning red.

“Yeonjun, WHAT THE HELL?!” was the first thing she yelled to her already-sensitive brother before switching to a gentler tone. “Stop embarrassing me in a public place, what the hell even happened?”

“He…. the art nerd…. he won’t-!” was all he got out in between hiccups and sobs.

“Hey.” Lia reached up and wiped the teachers from her brothers face, adding a few ‘Shhhhh’s to further quiet him. “Slow down. What happened to make you cry in SCHOOL? The Golden Hyung never cries in school..”

“…I hugged Soobin…. and then… he pushed me away..!” the tears came again, prompting Lia to let out a huge sigh and settle for using her sleeves to dry them.

“Yeonjun.” she held his face in her hands, squishing his cheeks. “Did you forget that you’re not Yeonwoo today?”

 

“……”

 

“Yeonjun.”

 

“……Yes.”

Lia sighed, pinching her nose.

If her brother wasn’t crying his eyes out right now she would’ve teased him for finally somewhat admitting to liking Soobin and even taking the initiative to hug him. But the problem was Yeonjun hugged Soobin, not Yeonwoo.

“Yeonjun, he only pushed you away because it was so sudden and he’s never interacted with Yeonjun before.” she tried explaining. “If some guy from a completely different social circle went up and hugged you all of a sudden, what would you do in that situation?”

Yeonjun sniffled.

“I’d…. knee them in the balls….” he whimpered.

Typical answer from her brother.

“Well you see, your coping mechanism with strangers is kneeing them in the balls, while Soobin’s is pushing people away.” Lia broke it down, relieved that his crying was finally started to subside. “You get it?”

Yeonjun nodded, his eyes still red.

“I swear, you’re worse than most of my girl friends..” Lia muttered as she pulled out a twenty dollar bill from the back of her phone case. “You’re done with your exams, right? Go home early. Get yourself some ice cream or something to make you feel better. I’ll be home as soon as class is done.”

Yeonjun obediently took the bill and started towards the door.

He turned around and grabbed Lia’s arm before she went back into her classroom.

“….Can I get extra large strawberry?” he asked, knowing that Lia hated any fruit flavored ice cream.

Was this really her brother?

She sighed.

“Yes Yeonjun, you can get extra large strawberry.”

At least she saw a tiny smile before he left.


	15. fiftyteen

He tried to not let the strange event get to his head.

But at the same time he couldn’t stop thinking about how flustered and nervous Yeonjun seemed around him. They had barely spoken or interacted- what could’ve possibly set him off to run off sobbing like that? Wasn’t pushing away a sudden hug from a stranger a normal thing? ..A bit rude, but mostly normal?

He had noticed the other rubbing his palms against his pants and blushing too.

…Was there a chance.. that he liked him?

That wouldn’t make any sense though, right?

Soobin never found himself incredibly good-looking, and he was sure Yeonjun couldn’t care less about his artistic skills or his personality.

And wasn’t Yeonjun known to easily get GIRLS to sleep with him? With the type of people he surrounded himself with, Soobin was sure that he was aggressively straight.

He couldn’t stop thinking about how similar Yeonjun’s blush was to Yeonwoo’s, though. It began as a rose-colored glow from the cheeks, and slowly spread to the ears, and all the way down to the neck, all the while deepening to a rich crimson shade.

Not to mention Yeonwoo hid her face in his neck when they were at the movies, just as Yeonjun did today...

“Ugh, what the hell are you thinking about, Soobin..?” he slapped himself in the forehead. “They’re siblings, of course they’re gonna be similar!”

They were around the same height, too..

“Siblings!!” he told himself again, staring at the little black box in his hands. “My muse is Yeonwoo… she’s the only one for me.”

The sensation of overwhelming guilt washed over him in an instant, as he realized that he had been in a hug with someone else.

His muse’s BROTHER.

Was this considered cheating..?

Even though technically they weren’t in a relationship…

BUT STILL.

He fumbled with his phone, shakily sending a text.

To ➡️ 🌸.Y: Yeonwoo, I have something to tell you..

To ➡️ 🌸.Y: And it’s not good…

‘Just say it- like a man!!’ his mind screamed.

He ducked his head down and went to work on his apology text, heading towards the direction of his muse’s house.

He was going to make things right if he died trying.

 

\- - -

 

Lia was really starting to question if she had an older brother or a younger sister.

If anyone showed up to their house and saw their brother wrapped in blankets and scooping out the last bits of a giant tub of strawberry ice cream while pouting and watching some second-rate romance drama in bed, they would ask the same question.

“Why are you watching this? It’s so cringy…” she walked over to the TV and shut it off, while Yeonjun made a sound of protest. “And why are you wearing my slippers!?” She stared at him as he tried to hide the giant fluffy pink slippers under the blankets.

“They were comfortable…”

“You’re really are worse than my friends…” she shook her head and swiped the empty tub of ice cream away from her brother, watching as he replaced hugging the tub with wrapping his arms around the doll he had gotten from his impromptu arcade date with Soobin.

She called it a date, but he used the word “intimate hang-out”.

“You okay, though?” she asked, petting her brother on the head. “You got all of the tears out?”

He gave a simple nod.

“Look, Yeonjun, you came into this wanting to lay low as Yeonwoo, and obviously that didn’t happen.” Lia hopped onto the bed, sharing the blankets with her brother. “And somehow you managed to get the art nerd to fall for your fake persona but he doesn’t know that you’re actually a boy.”

The only response she received was a deep sigh.

“This sounds like a drama, honestly….” she rubbed her eyes and fell back. “Well the thing that you can look forward to is that when Yeonwoo returns tomorrow, you’ll get your old smitten little art nerd back.”

“You don’t get it, I wanna see him now…..” Yeonjun held out the corgi plush in front of him, pouting. “Binnie gets it.”

“Oh my god, you named it…..” Lia facepalmed.

To be honest, one of the reasons Yeonjun was moping was because he hated himself for reacting so dramatically after his hug with Soobin. Why did he even cry in the first place? Why did he even HUG him in the first place?! He should’ve known better that Soobin was smitten with Yeonwoo, who was supposed to be a girl.

Soobin was in love with a girl.

And Yeonjun was straight…….?

If anything he should be crying for joy because of how successful the first phase of the Ryujin mission was. If the plan moved accordingly, it would just be a few more weeks before he could burn the skirt and kill off Yeonwoo forever.

..But did he want to?

What would happen to the art nerd?

What would happen to the relationship between them?

‘There is no relationship between you two.’ his mind spoke. 'At least.. there wasn’t supposed to be.

Their relationship wasn’t meant to happen...

A quiet ping interrupted his train of thought.

“Yeonjun, that’s your phone.” Lia grabbed it off the table and opened it, her eyes widening as she read the name off. “It’s the nerd!!”

“ **GIVE ME IT.** ”

She swore that her brother jumped out of bed, grabbed his phone out of her hands, and stood up before she could even blink once.

From Art Nerd: Yeonwoo, I have something to tell you..

From Art Nerd: And it’s not good…

Yeonjun’s smile immediately fell.

Did he find out already?

From Art Nerd: idk why but ur brother hugged me today but i pushed him off but i still hugged him for like 6 seconds and i just wanted to apologize bc i feel like im cheating on you even tho we’re not in a relationship and im really sorry!!! okayithinkimdonebye

He bit the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from laughing. He didn’t think that he had ever gotten a message from the artist in such casual jargon, but since he knew that Soobin usually filled his text messages with proper capitalization and words that should be in a textbook, he found it quite refreshing and extremely cute.

It was like he could feel the nervousness from the text.

Lia saw her brother’s mood take a complete 180 and smiled herself.

‘Art nerd must’ve done something right.’ she thought.

To ➡️ Art Nerd: soobin, it’s fine...

To ➡️ Art Nerd: i don’t think hugging my brother is cheating anyway!

To ➡️ Art Nerd: don’t worry, i forgive you! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Usually he would cringe at double or triple-texting and sending emoticons (it was such a _girly_  thing to do), but his mind was too clouded with fluff for him to think properly.

Soobin replied within ten seconds after Yeonjun sent out the last message.

From Art Nerd: thank you yeonwoo!!!

From Art Nerd: Also.. I decided that I wanted to do something more and also apologize for the night we went to the arcade.

From Art Nerd: I’m on my way to your house right now, do you mind….?

Lia had never heard her brother squeal before.

Until now.

She almost fell out of the bed because she had no idea where the sound came from.

“Yeonjun, what????”

“HE’S COMING HERE. NOW.”

“OH SHOOT.”

“YEAH!”

“ASK HIM HOW FAR HE IS!!”

“OKAY!!!”

Lia jumped out of the bed and rummaged through Yeonjun’s closet, tossing aside the clothes that desperately needed to go to the laundry and finding the pile of clothes that she had bought using HIS card the last time they encountered Yuna outside of school.

“Yah, these clothes are too cute not to wear, why are they at the back of your closet??”

“Did I _ask_  you to buy them for me?!” he shot back, his anxiety growing with every passing second as he waited for an answer. “It’s not like I’d actually wear them in my free ti- HE SAYS HE’S TEN MINUTES AWAY.”

“HURRY UP AND CHANGE!!” Lia threw several articles of clothing at Yeonjun’s face, sprinting into the bathroom and dumping out basically her entire vanity onto the counter. “AND THEN RUN IN HERE SO I CAN REVIVE YEONWOO.”

“LIA, THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL I’M PUTTING THIS ON.” Yeonjun showed up in the bathroom doorway, holding the lacy bra from his after school date with Ryujin in between two fingers, his face contorted into one of disgust.

“TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE, GET IT ON OR I’LL CHOKE YOU WITH IT.”

He let out a giant groan before turning back to his room in defeat, repeatedly checking his phone for updates.

Despite the rushed situation, he was still giddy that the nerd was coming to personally see him- wait no, Yeonwoo.

It helped him forget about the whole fiasco that happened in school.

He even hummed a little tune as he rushed to change out of his dirty sweats.

“Soobin is coming to see me~” he sang to himself. “Ew, wait, what am I doing?”

Even if the nerd was coming, he wasn’t coming for Yeonjun.

And the only reason that he was happy that he was coming was that he could distract Soobin from that disaster this morning.

The only reason he was happy was because he could fix his own mistake.

Once he fixed it, he would get back to his own mission.

…..right?

After stalling for a few seconds, he settled for changing in silence.

But he couldn’t stop singing in his head, no matter how much the ‘Yeonjun’ in his mind kicked and screamed something about not being gay.

“YEONJUN, HURRY THE FRICK FRACK UP!!”

“I AM _TRYING_."

 

\- - -

 

From 🌸.Y: don’t worry, i forgive you! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

He swore he could feel his cheeks already heating up.

“Ah.. really… Yeonwoo, you’re too cute..” Soobin mumbled, pressing his hand against his face. He continued the conversation easily, and was elated when she confirmed that she would be home.

From 🌸.Y: btw how far are you??

He looked around, recognizing signs and building that he had seen when he walked his muse home the other day. If he estimated the walking distance from here to the front steps, it’d be about five minutes? But girls liked to freshen up or something before they saw anyone right? He slowed down his walking pace, his head ducking down to his phone.

To ➡️ 🌸.Y: I want to say… about ten minutes?

He received a reply within two seconds of delivering his message.

From 🌸.Y: okay i’ll see you!!

Soobin wanted to start skipping down the street and click his heels together at the joy that was growing with every step towards his muse’s house. He fixed the edges of the bow on the box once more and took a look inside, making sure everything about the gift was perfect. Patting his pocket, he made sure he had an extra ribbon just in case he decided that the bow had to be completely redone.

It HAD to be perfect.

Otherwise, how would she forgive him for the thing he pulled that night?

How would she take him seriously?

A tiny part of him was hoping that Yeonwoo would throw her arms around him and not let go after she opened the box.

It sure would help him forget about that strange hug from her brother that morning…

“Why do you keep thinking about her brother?” he asked himself. “He’s just a part -time aggressively straight playboy, and a full-time asshole.. nothing special about him.”

Another part of him just wanted Yeonwoo to grab his face and k-… ki-…..

He couldn’t even THINK the word.

He just wanted her to be happy and like the gift, that was all.

As long as she didn’t throw it down into the street in disgust, he was fine with anything.

Soobin looked up and could see the railing and front steps of his muse’s house, his palms growing sweaty. Thanks to the twisting sensation in his stomach, some of his joy turned to anxiety.

What if she doesn’t like it?

Is it too small?

Would she even use it?

Why did I decide to do this..?

“You’re fine, you’re fine..” he put his hand on his chest, taking deep breaths and counting to ten. “You just haven’t seen her for a day….. you haven’t talked to her in a few..”

Now that he stared the the little black box in his hand, it looked… a little bland to him?

“I really should have gotten her chocolates or something.. this little box seems too simple now.” he cursed under his breath, a drop of sweat sliding down the side of his head. He was getting closer to the front steps now…

What could he do now? There wasn’t enough time to run back to the store to get chocolates or candy.. and the florist was way too expensive and rarely sold to high school kids anyway….

“You really are a stupid art nerd..” he scolded himself, Yeonwoo’s neighbors’ front yards seemed to flying faster and faster past him as his feet took him closer and closer to her front door.

Wait.

Did he just walk past flowers?

Soobin stopped himself and turned around. Sure enough, there was a huge bush of roses, all in full bloom and all with large, scarlet blossoms.

Yeonwoo’s neighbor wouldn’t mind if he just…. borrowed a few, right?

And it was such a huge bush, no one would even notice, right?

His morals and manners were no match for his dedication to his muse.

He found himself kneeling on the sidewalk and attempting to break off some of the stems, without trying to hurt himself… too much.

“This one’s nice… ow!!” he poked himself with a thorn and scratched himself with another one. “Just a few- ow! more… owww!!”

This continued on until he decided that a bouquet bigger than his own head was sufficient.

Okay, he  _may_ have gone overboard..

“Hopefully she likes roses..” he pleaded to no one in particular. He tied the bouquet with the extra ribbon, making sure to make the bow as perfect as the one on the box. Somehow Soobin managed to do this without getting any of his blood from his hand wounds onto the flowers or the ribbon.

He was tactile when he needed to be.

Checking his phone, he was right on the ten minute mark when he bounced up the steps to the house and rang the doorbell. He went through the process of trying to smooth out his hair, straightening his glasses, and dusting off all of the dirt and debris off of his mostly clean uniform.

He was ready.

He was prepared for this.

While the artist was waiting patiently and whistling to himself outside, the Kim household was in absolute chaos.

“LIA, WHERE’S MY WIG??!” Yeonjun scurried from the bathroom to the living room, frantically searching for probably the most important article of his outfit.

“HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?”

“WELL YOU SEEM TO INTERESTED IN EVERYTHING ABOUT YEONWOO.”

“BUT HOW DO YOU LOSE A WIG?? THERE’S ONLY ONE PERSON IN THIS HOUSE THAT USES IT???”

“HE RANG THE DOORBELL, CAN YOU STALL FOR ME?”

“UM, HOW DO I-“

“LIA, JUST DO IT FOR ME PLEASE.” he pushed his sister to the front door, running back to his room.

“YOU OWE ME SO MUCH FOR THIS, STUPID!!” she screamed one last thing before turning the doorknob and opening the door to face the very nerd the stole her brother’s heart.

 

\- - -

 

Soobin was prepared when the door flew open- he fell down to one knee and held the giant bouquet out, squeezing his eyes shut and waiting for a response.

What he wasn’t expecting was silence.

He cracked one eye open, and within the next five seconds, stood up and hid the flowers behind his back.

“Those are pretty, but I don’t think they were meant for me.” Lia commented, trying to listen for any indication that her brother was ready. “So…..Choi.. Soobin, right?”

“Yep..” he popped the ‘P’ at the end, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. “Um.. can I see Yeonwoo?”

“She.. just came out of the shower.” she gave Soobin a polite smile before she leaned against the frame of the door. “So….. you do art.”

“Yep….” he nodded, already sensing the awkwardness in the air.

“Cool.” was her only response.

“I guess.”

“What kind?”

“Uh.. all mediums, I guess?”

“Oh. Cool.”

“Yep.”

When would this silent torture end?

“So.. you like those big artists?” Lia continued trying to make conversation.

VERY heavy emphasis on ‘trying’.

“Big artists?”

“Y’know.. like that guy…… I learned about him in world history… I got it….. uh…. The Binchi?? I think that was the name?”

“…....Da Vinci?”

“Yeah!! That guy!”

“Um.. yeah, I’m a fan."

“Ah. Cool.”

They never knew making small talk was one of the hardest things to do in the world.

Thank god the next thing saved them.

“I FOUND IT!!” Soobin heard a voice from behind Lia, as he went on his toes to look over and behind the smaller girl.

He saw his muse running toward the front door, her hand on the top of her head and the soft curls of her hair bouncing as she made her way behind Lia.

“Lia, can you be a dear and give me and Soobin some alone time?” Yeonjun asked, afraid that his sister could lash out at him any second.

“Sure thing, unnie.” she gave a smirk and headed inside, but not before giving him a solid smack on his butt.

‘Lia, I’ll kill you.’ he shot her a look and narrowed his eyes, but only earned a stifled laugh from the younger.

Soobin wasn’t ready.

It had been less than twenty four hours since he had last seen his muse, but he was all while more stunned to be standing before her again. He noticed that she seemed uncomfortable in her current attire, as she kept trying to pull down the skirt and kept fidgeting with the collar of the blouse.

The fluffy pink house slippers were cute, though.

“So… are you going out somewhere?” he asked, hiding both of his hands behind him.

“What? Oh, no, Lia was just making me… try on stuff.”

If it made sense, he would’ve just worn his uniform.

But NO, he was now struggling to keep the little white skirt away from the clutches of the wind.

And why the hell was this blouse so flowery and pink and ITCHY??

Because Lia just had to throw him the girliest and the most uncomfortable fucking outfit possible.

“Be thankful you look cute.” she had warned after threatening to poke him in the eye with her mascara brush.

“So.. what brings you here?” Yeonjun asked, trying to seem as natural as possible (as if he didn’t just spent the last ten minutes sweating and panicking about this moment).

“I just wanted to say… if I made you feel uncomfortable in any away that night… I apologize.” he began reciting his practiced apology, scratching his cheek. “And because all I am is a stupid art nerd, I made something for y-“

“Wait. Pause.”

..Did he mess up already?

What did he do??

‘Stupid, you probably said something wrong!!’ he scolded himself.

“Soobin, what happened to your hand?”

Oh.

He pulled his hand away from his face and finally noticed the tiny cuts and scratches that ran from his palm to his knuckles.

All he could do was let out a nervous laugh and reluctantly reveal the roses, tied prettily with the ribbon.

“Oh my….” Yeonjun’s hand went up to his mouth, as he blinked at the huge bouquet the nerd held in his other hand, which was just as scratched up as the first. “Soobin, these are.. beautiful…”

‘HE GOT ME FLOWERS!!!’

He was completely done for.

“Be careful, I couldn’t get all of the thorns off!” he warned as he watched his muse take the bouquet from his hands and delicately sniff them.

“Wait…. don’t tell me..”

Soobin panicked as his muse’s brows furrowed and she closely examined the flowers.

“Oh my god, did you get these from Mrs. Park’s yard?!”

“SHHHHHHHHH!!!” he stepped forward and placed a finger to her lips, immediately stepping back when she became quiet. “I think she’s home now…!”

Yeonjun was quiet for a few seconds, before he burst in a fit of laughter.

It wasn’t like the fake courtesy laugh he gave to the stupid jokes guys tried to win him over with in school. It was loud, hearty, and genuine.

It was music to Soobin’s ears.

“You actually went through the trouble of ripping these from her prized rose bush..” Yeonjun muttered, shaking his head with a smile. “But you got hurt too… wait here!”

He ducked back into the house for a few seconds, before returning with the roses wrapped securely with some newspaper and a first aid kit.

If Soobin was still the same person he was when he first saw Yeonwoo, he would’ve had an aneurysm as Yeonwoo pulled him by his sleeve to sit down on her front steps.

“This might sting a little bit.” Yeonjun warned, spraying antiseptic onto Soobin’s hand and pulling back when he heard a sharp hiss from the artist. “…You okay?”

He nodded with a tight smile.

The burning on his hand was nothing compared to his ears. Who knew that this short visit would end up with his muse patching up his hand? As the spray dried, Soobin watched as she held the wrapping of the band-aid in her teeth and stuck it on his fingers, repeating this process on both of his hands, with the gentlest of touches.

He had to say it was quite unexpected for a girl who kicked a guy square in the face at school. Or for a girl who broke an arcade game with a mallet and a single swing.

Soobin watched as she pushed out her lips in a pout out of concentration, and could feel his ears only burning hotter as Yeonwoo swept all of her hair to one shoulder in one graceful motion so it wouldn’t get in the way of her work. He quickly turned away when more of her décolleté was exposed, feeling embarrassed that he was seeing his muse expose so much skin.

He swore he saw a little bump on her neck, though.

 

An…. Adam’s.. apple..?

 

He didn’t realize he was staring until she grabbed her hair and pulled it to cover up her neck, with a deep pink color on her cheeks.

“Wh-Where are you looking?” she stuttered, her eyes wide with fear.

Soobin didn’t know that Yeonjun was actually sweating under his wig.

‘Don’t be ridiculous, light creates weird shadows- you should know this if you call yourself an artist!!’ his mind completely trashed his thoughts from before. ‘The hug from Yeonjun is really messing with your mind.. why are you bringing the poor girl into your own ridiculous thoughts?’

“Sorry.”

“Anyways… you should be all patched up now.” Yeonjun closed the first aid kit with a click, putting it aside. “Sorry about the band-aid choice, Lia bought ‘em..”

Soobin held up his hands, now covered in various sized, pink polka-dotted bandages.

“So what were you saying earlier?”

Oh, yeah.

His speech.

He cleared his throat before turning towards his muse.

“..You know all I am is a stupid art nerd. I can’t take you to expensive dinners, or buy you designer clothes or stuff like some of the guys out there. But I did make something for you..” he pulled the tiny black box out of his pocket, trying his hardest to make sure his hands weren’t shaking as he held it out to his muse.

‘Don’t take it or he’ll think you actually like him!!’ half of Yeonjun’s mind screamed, preventing him from immediately taking the box in the artist’s hand.

‘But… he made it for me…’ the other half argued.

‘What kind of  ‘friend’ makes stuff and gives roses to you?!’

‘But…'

‘No buts!! Do you want this nerd or do you want Ryujin?’

At this point… he didn’t know anymore.

And before he could continue to think, he was already untying the ribbon and taking off the top of the box.

All he could do for the first few seconds was stare.

Nestled in a bed of velvet was a silver crown, with intricate swirls scattered throughout the metalwork. It looked like whoever made it must’ve been hunched over a light and made sure that every single bent and twist was perfect and how no crystal or pearl was out of place.

“You made this?“

“It’s a clip.” he explained, observing his muse carefully taking his work out of the box. “I thought you’d like one..”

If he was thinking straight, he would’ve put the thing back in the box, stuck it in a drawer, and never see or think about it again.

After all, what would HE do with some hair clip?

But.. it was Soobin’s….

He shifted back a little when he saw Soobin’s hand’s reach for his hand..

“Um.. may I..?”

‘Of course not, you creepy ner-!’

Yeonjun nodded, not saying a word, only trying to control his breathing and keep his sanity from flying into the void as the artist moved away the strands of hair framing his face and eased the clip onto the side of his head.

He suddenly felt intensely self-conscious.

“As expected..” Soobin used his bandaged fingers to gently brush away his muse’s bangs, a wide and genuine smile taking over his features when he noticed the first signs of the classic Yeonwoo blush. Pink from her cheeks, to her ears, all the way down to her neck. “It suits you perfectly.”

“...You’re talented as hell..” Yeonjun ran his fingers over the clip, with the overwhelming giddiness that he was wearing something that the artist made just for him. He was surprised at himself that he could still get words out even with his burning face and ears. When he realized he had cursed, he quickly tried correcting himself, with a, “I-I mean, you’re really, really talented…."

“If I was that talented, I wouldn’t have gotten second place at my competition today...” Soobin slowly pulled out the silver medal he was hiding behind his sweater vest and held it up with a shrug. “But at least I didn’t place last!!”

With a scoff, Yeonjun shifted closer to the artist.

 

Close enough so their legs touched.

 

Close enough so he could cup his head in his hands.

 

Soobin was utterly frozen, even dropping his medal to the front of his chest.

 

“It doesn’t matter if you got second..”

 

A peck on his right cheek.

 

“..or first…”

 

Another peck on his left cheek.

 

“..or even last.”

 

One more on his right cheek.

 

“You’re still a talented, stupid art nerd.”

 

 

He absolutely hated this.

He absolutely hated the way his face, his body, his thoughts were reacting.

But his heart craved it and never wanted it to end.

Yeonjun hated the stupid art nerd.

Absolutely despised him.

But the reason? Unclear.

'I hate you because you’re ruining my master plan!!'

'I hate you because you’re distracting me from Ryujin!'

'I hate you because you keep pulling these stupid gestures.'

'I hate you because you make me want to spend more time with you..'

'I hate you because you treat me so.. nicely...'

 

 

'I hate you but I… like…… you…..?'

 

Soobin stared back at his muse with wide eyes, only blinking without uttering a word.

 

Did she just…?

 

She actually…..

 

…She did!!!

 

“Oh shi…shoot, I got my lip stuff on your face!!”

He wasn’t even done processing what Yeonwoo did before, and she was already trying to use her hands to rub the lip mark off of his cheeks, her panic visibly growing with every wipe.

‘Adorable..’ he thought, watching his muse grow frantic with her rosy pink cheeks.

“I don’t think…. oh no, I think it’s tint… it’s not coming off!!”

He grabbed her by the wrist, stopping Yeonwoo in the midst of her cleanup.

“If you can’t get it off, at least make it even.”

He got a blink and a head tilt.

‘Adorable!!!’ Soobin noted, trying not to break his pokerface.

“There’s three, right?” he pointed to the red marks on his face, his cheekiness at an all-time high. “If my left cheek has one more, it’ll be even.”

He didn’t think her blush could grow even darker.

But the now-glowing scarlet shade of her ears proved him wrong.

“…greedy, stupid art nerd.” he bit the inside of his cheek to stop his smile before leaning forward and pressing his lips to the artist’s face.

 

And this time he made sure he left a mark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ik for some ppl it might seem like their relationship is moving slowly but honestly its p realistic lol  
> u dont just meet ppl and fall in love and be in a loving relationship immediately
> 
> at least I DONT HAHA rip
> 
> enjoyyyyy <3


	16. sweet sixteen

Today was the beginning of a new mission, she decided.

No matter what happened, no matter who tried to meddle..

She was GOING to get her brother together with Soobin.

Little did Yeonjun know, she had been peeking through the curtains the entire time Soobin was over. She had seen everything from the first aid Yeonjun performed on the other, down to the kisses.

Not even one kiss, but FOUR.

 

FOUR kisses for a guy that was supposed to be his ‘friend’.

 

FOUR kisses that Yeonjun gave to him- quite a lot for someone who claimed that he was “nowhere near gay”.

 

Lia swore, she was about to run out there and smash their heads together while yelling “JUST KISS AND GET TOGETHER, YOU FREAKING LOSERS!”.

But she didn’t.

The artist already thought she was weird anyway.

By the time the two of them had waved goodbye to each other- her brother with a shy little smile on his face and Soobin with kiss marks on both of his cheeks- she was already prepared to jump Yeonjun when he walked in.

“So~” she whistled, peeking her head into their foyer. “How’d it go~?”

She could feel that warm, fuzzy feeling in her stomach when all Yeonjun did was try to hide his smile and look down at the bouquet he held in his hands with the slightest tinge of pink on his cheeks. Like a mother bird watching as her child took flight for the first time.

“He’s…. so sweet…”

“You guys are SO DAMN CUTE!! The band-aids and the pin and the flowers and the KISSES, Yeonjun!!! THE KISSES!!”

He stared at her, open-mouthed.

“You were watching??!” he sputtered, the pink on his face spreading again. “What the hell, Lia?!"

“Hey, I needed to asses the situation before I decided to help you.” she put up her hands in defense, taking the roses from her brother’s hands and sticking them in a vase she had already found.

“Help..?”

“I’m going to make you two a thing, no matter what.” Lia declared, with her hands on her hips and her nose up in the air. “Now that I know you like boys, I can start getting to work.”

“B-But-!”

“But what? Did you not kiss Soobin four times?” she asked before her brother could start coming up with stupid excuses and claims about his heterosexuality. “It’s only a matter of time before you two start French kissing.”

“LIA!!!”

“What? You’ve moved faster with girls.”

“I-I mean, yeah…. but… he’s special.” he completely let go of his previous argument that he didn’t like guys, because he DID just give the artist a flurry of kisses, after all.

‘You said the same thing about Ryujin..’ he reminded himself. ‘Is she not your mission anymore?’

“I know he is. I can tell.” Lia reached and ran her fingers over the pearls set in his clip. “I can’t believe he actually made this, by hand..”

‘Me neither…'

“Take good care of it. You won’t find a guy like that anywhere, Yeonjun.”

“I will.” he nodded happily, his cheeks glowing with a radiance Lia had never seen before.

Yup, this was now HER mission.

“Go use my makeup wipes and head to bed early, you need your beauty sleep for tomorrow.”

Oh yeah…

Time to return to two hour morning routines.

“Oh, Lia..” he held her by her arm, trying to ask his question without stuttering. “Tomorrow, do you think you… can… like…..”

“Yes, I’ll make you extra pretty tomorrow....” she brushed his hand off and smirked, adding a quick “….Yeonwoo unnie~” before running into her room.

Surprisingly Yeonjun didn’t protest like usual.

For the next hour, he wasn’t even mad.

He was thinking too much about.. him.

He could remember the strands of hair that fell down to his eyes.

His glasses that briefly bumped against his face when he leaned in to ki…… KI-

‘I can’t even think about the word right now….’

He could remember the subtle scent of paint and freshly washed linens from the nerd, and most importantly, he could remember his dark eyes wide and looking at only him.

In short, as of now, Yeonjun was not regretting his decision to do what he did.

There was a buzz from the table where his phone was.

From Art Nerd: [Photo Attachment]

From Art Nerd: I couldn’t get it off…

He had to physically and mentally prepare himself before opening the message.

Yeonjun almost dropped his phone.

The nerd had taken a selfie, and he was wearing a sheepish expression as he pointed to the very slightly faded pink marks on his cheeks. Yeonjun guessed he was in his bathroom from the white tiles in the background and the droplets of water still on the nerd’s face.

But man, was he cute…..!!

He held his phone up from his face and stared at the picture for a good thirty seconds before squeezing his eyes shut and kicking in the air.

“CUTE!!” he whisper-yelled, careful not to let Lia hear.

Even though he was half-expecting her to have her ear pressed against his door anyway.

To ➡️ Art Nerd: omg i’m so sorry??

To ➡️ Art Nerd: i’ll give you some makeup remover or something tmrw, okay?

Another five seconds that was like an agonizing wait for Yeonjun.

From Art Nerd: Don’t worry.

From Art Nerd: I find them cute. :)

If it weren’t for Lia, Yeonjun would’ve been screaming it by now.

 

\- - -

 

Wooseok was a man that knew his interests.

It was why he rejected eight out of every ten girls that confessed to him.

He didn’t only think of himself as the one of the most attractive guys in school (probably the most attractive, he thought, since Yeonjun wasn’t there), but also as a man that needed something more than just a beautiful woman to turn his head.

He did admit that he was quite picky with his girls. Yuna was only his third girl this year, whereas around last year he’d be somewhere between his tenth and fifteenth. But still, he had already started to get bored with her and needed to find someone else to devote all of his attention (and lust) to.

That’s when Yeonwoo came into his life.

Of course he wasn’t attracted to her AT ALL on her first day, he had to admit, she cleaned up extremely well.

Because when she came in the second day, with her flowy hair and the short uniform skirt, he knew that all he wanted to hear from her was his name. There was no other girl at school like her, with her tall but thin frame and shoulders that just happened to be wider than some of his guy friends.

It was the way she treated him.

From kicking him in various places and smacking him in the face with her backpack every single day, he didn’t know why he craved her attention every time she scowled or hurled names at him. 

Maybe it was the way she said it so sweetly?

Maybe it was the way she refused to pay attention to him, even when he had his driver pull up to school in one of luxury convertibles?

Or maybe.. it was because he wasn’t up to her standards?

...That couldn’t be it, right?

It was like she was lashing out at him because he had done something terrible to her a while ago and she was taking revenge.

He knew Yeonjun would’ve done something like this, though.

But Yeonwoo wasn’t Yeonjun.

How was the flower related to her trash can of a brother?

Yeonjun didn’t have luscious dark locks that seemed to float even when there was no wind.

Yeonjun didn’t give out cute little waves and kisses.

And Yeonjun definitely didn’t have as cute of a butt as his sister did.

He drowned out whatever some girl was trying to say to him and his head immediately whipped around when he heard the familiar commotion in the hallway that morning. As usual, she simply gave him a bland look and brushed past him, her hands tightening on the straps of her backpack. 

‘No cardigan today..?’ he noticed, only seeing the white shirt and the school tie.

His eyes couldn’t help but fall to her waist, then to her hips, down those plush thighs that were just begging for him to grab a handful, and to her slim legs that he could already imaging having wrapped around him as he poun-

“Unnie, your cardigan!!” Yeonwoo’s sister’s voice ruined his fantasy, but thankfully, also stopped his little friend down there from getting a bit too excited. She threw the cloth over her sister’s shoulders, fussing as Yeonwoo tried nudging her off, but to no avail.

Wooseok squared his shoulders, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and swaggered over to the duo.

“Good morning, my shining goddess.” he started, successfully backing his prey against the wall. “Your brother said you weren’t feeling good yesterday?”

“My brother knows me best, after all!” she answered, pushing aside his arm before he pressed it against the wall again, making sure Yeonwoo had no escape. “It’d be in your best interest to move your hand if you don’t want to end up dead in a dumpster somewhere.”

Why were her responses so amusing to him? So arousing?

“How does my place on Friday sound? I have a private movie theater and I just got Fifty Shades updated on it.”

Another scoff.

Another eye roll.

“Keep dreaming.”

His prey ducked under his arms and blew stray strands of hair out of her face, even though she was already virtually perfect, before continuing on her way.

Oh how he wanted to discover her imperfections.

How he wanted to taint the untouched artwork that was Choi Yeonwoo.

 

\- - -

 

Being pinned to the wall by his sworn rival first thing in the morning wasn’t how he liked to start the day.

Having his mind endlessly repeat Soobin’s name… well, that was debatable.

Yeonjun was so focused on seeing the artist again that Lia had to basically throw his cardigan over him, since he almost forgot it at home. His sister had to almost sprint to keep up with his long strides, and it annoyed the living hell out of her.

“Did you forget that you need to cover your giant man hands?” she hissed, buttoning up his cardigan for him and lowering her voice to a whisper. “You can kiss and snuggle with Soobin all you want now, but remember that Yeonwoo’s a GIRL.”

“I’m not gonna kiss and snuggle-!”

“You do you, sis~”

He stuck his tongue out to her back when she walked away, shaking his head as he entered his classroom.

There he was.

His artist.

Soobin only did two things in the morning before class- sleep or sketch. Today was a sleep day, so his head was in his arms, covering his sketchbook. His glasses had slipped down his nose a bit, and Yeonjun’s heart rate immediately flew when he made out the faint pink marks on the artist’s cheeks.

‘So that actually happened yesterday..’

He shuffled over to his seat, making sure to step as quietly as he could to not wake the other up.

‘Why does he look so cute when he’s sleeping?’

No, stop!!

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to just..

…watch him for a bit, right?

He answered his own question by adjusting himself in his seat so that he could rest his arms and his head on the back of his seat, lowering his face down to Soobin’s level and silently timing his breathing with his.

Yeonjun had to admit, Soobin’s attraction was only multiplied when the artist wasn’t stuttering and actually got out coherent sentences, but when he was quiet and peaceful like he was now, he wanted nothing but to protect the nerd from the dangers of the outside world (or in most cases with Soobin, school).

‘You’re just a nerd..’ he repeated over and over in his head, resisting the urge to play with Soobin’s messy fringe. ‘How are you managing to turn the school’s asshole into into a mushy mess like this?’

“Y-Yeonwoo…..” he froze when he heard Soobin silently mutter the name.

‘He’s.. dreaming about me!!’

Why did that make him so happy?

He didn’t have an answer, only a giddy smile on his face.

Soobin’s dream was strange, in a way.

All he could process was that he was dressed in some kind of armor, bouncing up and down on the back of a horse. There was determination and anger coursing through his veins, as he leaned forward in the saddle and snapped the horse’s reins, quickly picking up speed. A tower came into sight, and sure enough, a giant green dragon stood guard on the ground.

He stopped his horse, neck craning up to look at the tiny window of the tower.

Yeonwoo popped her head out, her glittering crown catching his eye.

“My princess, I have come to rescue you from the clutches of this heinous dragon!” he declared, holding his sword in the air.

“My knight, you have finally come~!” Princess Yeonwoo cooed, clasping her hands together.

 

Wait, pause.

Yeonwoo wouldn’t say that.

 

Hey, it was his dream, he decided what was going on.

 

“I-I don’t need rescuing, you stupid white knight!!” she yelled back to him, turning away from the window with a loud “Hmph!”.

 

That’s better.

 

Knight Soobin let out a battle cry and charged towards the dragon with his sword, only to be blown back several feet by the flame the dragon had breathed.

The sensation of being thrown back jolted him awake. His eyes flew open, taking a few moments to adjust to the lights of his classroom.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he was staring straight into his muse’s face, their noses only a centimeter apart.

So were their lips.

What a wonderful sight to wake up to.

Yeonjun almost had a heart attack for various reasons. As his mind was processing what was going on, he blinked twice, bit down on his lip, and turning around in his seat so quickly that he shifted his entire desk.

‘Does he know that I’ve been watching him this entire time..?!’

Little did he know, all Soobin was thinking about was how pretty his muse’s eyes were up close. Thanks to that little accident, he was already thinking about his next work.

But then he saw the crown clip, fastened securely on the side of his muse’s head. A sense of satisfaction filled him, as he sat up straight and suddenly felt ready to face anything the world threw at him.

Maybe not a fire-breathing dragon though…

“Class, we’re going to talk about our history project today. You will all be researching some aspect of Korean history and presenting it, whether that be a leader, a conflict, or an era.” their teacher, who had given both Yeonjun and Soobin a weirdly wide smile, announced. “You’re going to be working with partners, so prepare yourself.”

The room was already buzzing, with friends inviting friends from the other side of the classroom to couples already claiming their significant other as their partner.

Yeonjun side-eyed Ryujin, who had quietly slipped into class a few minutes late.

Could this finally be his chance to make his move?

If they had a project, they had to work on it outside of school, right?

It’d be the perfect chance to finally get her to fall for him and even reveal his secr-

…okay, a bit too far.

“..Who said you were choosing your partners?” their teacher simply asked, wearing a proud smirk on her face as the entirely of the classroom groaned and complained.

Well, Yeonjun’s plan went out of the window.

Unless the gods were smiling down on his luck today.

“You’ll be working with another second year student, and one third year student. The information and knowledge you gain for your project might eventually end up useful for the annual school festival, so please keep that in mind.”

“Hey, guys!!” Ryujin nudged the both of them. “How’s the school festival? Is it fun?"

Neither Yeonjun nor Soobin wanted to think about the school festival.

When Yeonjun got caught skipping the festival last year, the teachers made him stay behind and join cleaning duty, which went overtime and made him miss another around of karaoke and drinks with his crew.

Soobin was driven to near insanity during festival season. As the President of Art Club and therefore the overseer of everything involving art, he had to approve everything single one of the decorations and artwork that was up in the hallways and outside of the school. It took up way too much time- time that could be used to better things.

So no, the two of them weren’t fans of festival season.

“It’s alright.” they answered in sync, quickly turning back to their own desks again.

“The pairs of names I call out now will be partners. You can check the lists by the teachers’ offices at the end of the day to find out who your third year mentor will be.” their teacher continued. “Soohyun and Geunhye will be researching the Silla kingdom, Soljin and Joowon will do Korea’s role in the World Wars, Jinah and…”

Yeonjun prayed that by some stroke of luck, his teacher would end up calling his and Ryujin’s name together.

But what about Soobin?

If he worked with Ryujin, there would be no doubt that would have to spent copious amounts of time together outside of school. Maybe they could even go on study dates at the library and get dinner at the streets stands..

If he worked with Soobin, however… he really didn’t know what was going to happen. He never planned on even speaking to the artist, nevertheless, receiving flowers from him and giving him kisses on his doorstep.

But a part of him was curious as to what would ensue if they were together again.

“For the Joseon era, Ryujin and…”

Please, please, please, please…..

“…Yeeun.”

He clutched the edge of his desk in frustration, watching as Ryujin turned to the girl on the other side of her and easily started making a conversation.

Of course working with someone else was fine (despite the fact that they might be smart enough to figure out that Yeonwoo was Yeonjun- COUGHCOUGHTaehyunCOUGHCOUGH), but now that Ryujin was eliminated as one of his options, there was only one other person that he would willingly speak to. Even if that one person gave Yeonjun the worst cold sweats he had ever had in his life.

“Yeonwoo and Soobin, Goryeo.”

The two of them drowned out the quiet curses from the male population of the classroom as the turned towards each other again. Soobin couldn’t do anything other than smile, and suppress his overwhelming happiness. How did his muse feel, though?

So somehow the gods had answered his prayers.

It wasn’t Ryujin, but at least it was someone he knew.

‘Oh, shut up, you know the nerd was your first choice.’

He hid his internal struggle with a shy smile.

“It’s still pretty pink, huh?” he tried to joke, cringing at his own attempt at humor.

“Huh?” the artist squeaked, his hands flying up to his face when he realized that she meant his cheek marks. “Oh, yeah.. it’s fine though, I don’t mind them.”

‘Are you KIDDING? Where’s your game, Soobin?!!’ he scolded himself. He wanted the personality that showed that day in art club to come through again, but without the burning anger and jealousy this time. All he wanted was to make Yeonwoo feel like she had someone to come to when things were difficult, and for her to know that he was her friend.

…possibly more.

It didn’t seem hard, but it took almost all of his strength to muster out a single sentence.

“Didn’t I say I found them cute?” he added, flashing a smile.

A smile that could’ve killed Yeonjun if he wasn’t already preparing himself for another one of Soobin’s sudden romantic gestures.

“I know I already said this yesterday, but I can’t get over how pretty this looks on you.” the artist used his last bit of bravery to bring his hand up to his muse’s head and slightly adjust the clip before softly petting her hair. “Or maybe it’s your beauty that’s making it seem so pretty….”

‘He called me pretty!!!!’

Was that anything for him to be happy about?

 

No!

 

And yes!!

“Yeonwoo, Soobin, you two can flirt outside of the classroom.” the teacher interrupted the moment, her loud announcement making the entirety of the classroom turn towards the two of them.

With nowhere to hide and nothing to say, Yeonjun’s eyes darted around frantically before he settled for covering his pink face and hot cheeks with his sweater paws and hoping the blush and his jumpy feelings would quickly go away. It did nothing to hide his identity from the rest of the class, but at least it prevented him from looking at their shocked, but interested expressions.

 

‘Stupid art nerd, stupid art nerd, stupid art nerd!!!’

 

‘ _Cute art nerd, cute art nerd, cute art nerd…..!!!_ ’

Soobin ignored the stares and instead pulled out his notebook, sat forward in his seat, and folded his hands neatly on the desk.

He was soaking up all of the surprise and attention, clearly.

So much so that he gave an ecstatic Ryujin a high five in the middle of class.

He was in the process of improving himself, and no one could stop him.

 

Not even a giant, fire-breathing dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TSUNDERE YEONJUN IS THE BEST YEONJUN  
> anyways did anyone else watch the blue orangeade lyric video bc i think athlete!blue eyed!yeonjun killed me goodbye
> 
> god really said  
> "ima make you the cutest boi ever"  
> AND HE DID
> 
> ALSO JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY  
> how many of y’all are active on TXTiddie stan Twitter bc mayhaps ill reveal my handle one day huehuehue


	17. SEVENTEEEEEEEEEEEEEN

All he wanted to do throughout the entirety of class was punch himself.

Or in a more realistic case, run home and cry his frustrations out into his pillow.

While Lia tried to comfort him with her explicit predictions of the future and awkward head petting.

Yeonjun could barely pay attention to whatever English grammar structure their teacher was going over because he was finding his notebook and his doodles awfully interesting. He had started out by drawing several stupid faces, but after adding shaggy hair and a pair of glasses to almost all of them, he was catching feelings all over again.

‘Remind myself to never be an artist..’ he thought, frantically scribbling out his sketches.

As soon as his teacher ended the lesson and the school bell rang, he pushed his books and pens off his desk and into his open backpack, before zipping it up and swinging it over his back.

How long did it take to get Lia and run to his house again?

“Yeonwoo.”

He didn’t give himself enough time mentally before he faced the person who had been lingering in his thoughts all day.

“We should go check who our mentor is, right?”

“Uh.. r-right.”

He expected for them to simply walk to the office together, but Soobin had other plans, as he laced his fingers in his muse’s and squeezed her hand before pulling her out of the classroom.

Yeonjun really didn’t appreciate the coos and whoops from their classmates, covering his face again and trying to get out of their sights as fast as he possibly could. It didn’t help because the hallway was packed with students trying to frantically get out of school too, and Yeonjun could see more than a few stares and hear several gasps.

So much for laying low.

The students that were already trying to find their names on the list noticed the two of them, and even made a path for them as they whispered about what the relationship between Yeonwoo and some random art kid could be.

“Excuse me…. excuse..” Soobin easily walked through the crowd, looking back at his muse covering her face with her sleeve and smiling to himself. He ran his finger down the list of names, stopping when he saw his and his muse’s right next to each other.

Their names looked nice together, he thought.

It was when his finger ran across the paper to the third year names that his stomach dropped.

“Yeonwoo..?”

Yeonjun peeked out from behind his sleeve, standing a few inches from Soobin’s side.

“Who’s our mentor?”

The instant he saw the name on the paper, he could already feel the person’s presence behind him.

Oh god no..

“So how does Sunday sound for discussing our project?” Wooseok half-whispered, half-hissed into Yeonjun’s ear. He wrinkled his nose at the scent of freshly smoked cigarettes and excessive cologne as he backed away from the elder, looking at him up and down.

So maybe the divinity wasn’t on his side after all..

“Um, I have.. church.” he made up an excuse.

“Then come after.” he leaned his elbow against the wall, preventing the other students from even coming near the list. “I bet we’ll vibe better later in the day, anyway.”

Yeonjun looped his arm in Soobin’s, pulling him close to the point where he could lean his head in his shoulder.

It was a desperate measure, he told himself.

“Then we’ll go there together!”

Soobin didn’t even hear what his muse said because he was too busy trying to think of ways to never wash the shoulder of his uniform shirt ever again.

“…this loser- I mean, this kid is in our group?” Wooseok spoke slowly and calmly, but he couldn’t hide his dissatisfaction evident on his face.

“Yep! We’re both researching Goryeo!” Yeonjun nodded, trying not to chuckle at Wooseok’s obvious discomfort. “He'll help me if I get lost on my way to your place, right, _Soobinnie~_?” He gave the nerd an innocent smile, desperately hoping he would get the message.

And oh, he definitely did.

Yeonjun had expected a nod or a simple ‘yes”, but instead he found himself being pulled even closer to the artist’s side as Soobin hand gently rested on his waist.

“Just let us know the address and we’ll be over by five, if that’s okay with you, Wooseok?” Soobin emphasized “us”, giving the same smile he normally used when he was mocking someone. “And don’t worry, I’ll keep Yeonwoo safe and sound on our journey there!”

 

Where did that sudden burst of confidence come from?

A few weeks ago, he would’ve just shrunk and walked away, afraid of Wooseok suddenly swinging at him and landing a punch.

Wooseok only scoffed, but the vein popping out of his forehead only confirmed what was true.

“Sure you will.” he muttered, glaring at Soobin as he pushed past him.

Was his new competition really some nerd?

It couldn’t be, right?

_..RIGHT??_

 

\- - -

 

“Yeonjun, you need to stop throwing your bra on the couch the first thing after you come home from school.”

“But it’s uncomfortable….” he groaned, picking up said object with two fingers and tossing it into the laundry basket Lia held out to him. “I wanna get it off as soon as I can.”

“I’m sure you’d get it off even faster if a certain someone was around.”

“What?”

“Nothing~!”

“….Alright.” Yeonjun side-eyed his sister, peeling off his wig and carefully tucking away the crown pin into the pocket of his cardigan. “Ugh, thank god the weather is getting colder. I can’t wear this thing in the sun.”

“You look cute in that outfit with your normal hair too.” Lia remarked, looking over her now short-haired brother still in the girl’s school uniform, skirt and socks and all. “Should Yeonwoo get a haircut?”

“Please, who wouldn’t see that it’s me?” he spat. “Besides, I can use the wig to cover my Adam’s apple if people get too close.”

“Seems like you’re speaking from experience~” his sister wiggled her eyebrows, pressing herself up against him. “How close did Soobin get? Close enough to kiss you~~?”

The thought of kissing the artist filled his mind again, and he had to use all of his pride and willpower to suppress the image.

“Don’t you have laundry to do?” he tossed his cardigan in her face, shuffling back to his room to change into sweats in record time.

After deciding that he was too lazy to take off all of his makeup and deciding that he could just clean it all off in the shower, he flipped open his laptop and typed in ‘Goryeo’, deciding to just peruse over whatever popped up first.

What? It’s not like anyone was going to see him.

“Kings, kings, kings, queen, general, ministers…..” he repeated to himself, scrolling past the search results, none of the titles catching his interest.

All he was thinking about was his artist.

….Was he his?

He could still feel how Soobin had pulled him closer that afternoon, and how he managed to convey possessiveness yet made Yeonjun feel like he was touching him in the gentlest way.

How the hell did he do it?

And how in the hell was Yeonjun going to be able to spent a few hours with him this weekend?

He still hadn’t recovered from the thing Soobin had pulled the last time they came back from spending time together.

Or the FOUR things he had did the last time they were alone.

Oh, right.

The asshole Wooseok was going to be there.

If anything did happen, the asshole’s face would ruin the mood anyway.

And Soobin definitely wasn’t the type to get in a straight up fist fight, especially with a guy like Wooseok.

Who knew the asshole would be of use to him like this someday?

“Um, Yeonjun?”

His sister’s panicked voice and the slamming of his door stopped him in his premature planning of Sunday, making him look up with a bored expression.

“What is it now? Is the washing machine broken again?”

“SOOBIN IS AT THE DOOR.”

 

Well, shit.

 

He didn’t know he could rush out of his room and shove his wig over his head in under ten seconds until today.

‘He came to see me again!!’

“YEONJUN, YOU FORGOT YOUR-“

Before she could finish her sentence, Yeonjun had already swung open the front door, to face a surprised artist with a stack of papers in his arms.

“Soobin!!” he greeted, his voice pitching higher than it normally did. “Um.. what are you doing here so late?”

“It’s only six..”

“Oh, is it??” he nonchalantly twirled a strand of hair around his finger. “I must have lost track of time.. I was researching for our project!”

It took Soobin a couple of seconds to form words, since the door had swung open and his muse’s face had appeared so quickly in front of him.

He was shocked at how radiant she looked, even with slightly messy hair and wearing sweats. Looking at her up and down, he made a mental note to thank the divinity for giving him such a flawless, glowing, beautiful, flat-chested mu-

 

Huh?

 

His eyes hovered over Yeonwoo’s chest area for a bit too long, recalling that she had at least some volume there just a few hours ago in school. But now it was just flat, as if nothing was ever there.

“That was what I’m here for, actually.” he coughed before explaining. “I was at the library after school and I found some articles that I think will really help with our project, so I printed them out and I wanted to bring them to you.”

“You.. could’ve just linked me to them.” his muse pointed out.

Oh, yeah...

 

‘Great going, you stupid nerd!!’ he mentally smacked himself.

 

“But I wanted to see you.” he blurted out, his mouth moving faster than his mind.

 

‘…..Nice save, you stupid nerd.’  


Yeonjun’s grip on his door tightening, as his throat closed up and he couldn’t form the words that his mind wanted him to say.

‘Does that mean.. he misses me?’

“Here, you can have all of this!!” Soobin fell to his knees and held out a paper clipped stack of papers out to his muse, hiding his darkening blush by bending his head to the ground. “I have my own copies, so you can take all of it!”

Yeonjun reached out and pulled the stack out of the artist’s hand, holding the papers as if it was his own child.

He was never going to throw them out.

“Thank you, Soobin.”

Soobin smiled to himself, then stood up and bowed, a wide smile on his face.

“Anything for you, Yeonwoo!”

Yeonjun couldn’t believe he was still alive after he saw the nerd’s smile.

It was like he was looking at an angel.

But he already had one….

“O-Oh, the lip tint stains are gone..." he noticed, suppressing the growing urge to stroke the nerd's face.

'DAMMIT.' Soobin cursed internally, wondering if he had scrubbed too hard in the shower.

"Really?" he asked, his hand shooting up his cheek. "Dammit!!”

Yeonjun was taken aback by his sudden annoyance, hugging the stack closer to his (flat) chest.

"You really didn't want them to come off?”

"Because they were a reminder that the time I spent with you wasn't a dream.”

 

How the hell did this kid manage to drive Yeonjun insane by just a few words? He tried looking anywhere but towards the nerd, pressing his lips in a straight line and trying to stop himself from staining his cheeks all over again.

Oh, he could do something else though.

He held his hand out to the nerd, as if he was waiting for him to give him something.

"Let me see your copies of the research.”

"Huh? Oh, here." he handed his stack over without hesitation.

He swore his heart was going to burst as he watched his muse bring the stack up to her lips and press them against the paper. Sure enough, there was a bright reddish-pink lip mark on the corner of the first page when she handed it back.

"Now you have a permanent reminder of me!" Yeonwoo declared, her eyes turning into crescent moons when she smiled.

Soobin couldn't decide whether he was sweating because of his muse's smile or the lipstick mark.

Why not both?

"It's getting dark, you should go home." Yeonjun added, part of his heart screaming at him to pull the nerd towards him and never let him leave.

"...I.. just don't want want you to walk home when it's cold.”

'Ew, you care too much.’

'BUT I DON'T WANT HIM TO GET SICK!!’

"Yeah, I should.”

A little part of Yeonjun died when he didn't protest.

"I'll see you Sunday?" he asked, not knowing how he was supposed to spend an entire day not seeing his artist.

"Yep, Sunday!" Soobin nodded a little too vigorously, pushing up the glasses that slid down his nose. He bobbed into a small bow before turning and taking a few steps down the house's stairs, but not before he heard a small "Psst!" from behind.

His muse, who looked even more beautiful from the blurred bluish cast of the streetlight, cupped a hand around her mouth and leaned slightly forward.

"Good night, Soobin!”

His heart couldn't handle it.

"Good night, Yeonwoo!!" he answered eagerly, before forcing himself to take the first steps away from his muse.

But all he wanted to do was run up her steps and pull her into a kiss.

Little did he know that Yeonwoo was trying her best to not run after and throw her arms around him, too.

 

\- - -

 

“Hey, can I ask you a stupid and weird question?”

“You know you can.”

“Do boobs’ sizes fluctuate?”

“….Well.”

“Doesn’t our relationship right now transcend the boundary of questions like this?”

“…..you’re right.” the sound of slurping filled Soobin’s ears, as he watched Ryujin manage to consume half of her ramen in one go through his phone screen. 2 AM snacking sessions between the two of them were now a frequent thing, and it was nice to have someone to eat with in his empty house. “The answer to your question is, it depends. Why do you ask?”

“So I went to Yeonwoo’s house after school to give her stuff for our project.” he started, emptying his packet of seasoning over his ramen before picking up his chopsticks. “And I was kind of… looking at her chest..”

“That’s okay, all boys do at one point.”

“-But like…. it was flat. There was nothing there, I think.” Soobin continued, trying to jog his memory. “But I only looked for a few seconds, so I’m not a hundred percent sure!!”

“No way, Yeonwoo definitely has boobs!!” Ryujin argued, placing her empty bowl on her bedside table and darting out of sight for a few seconds before coming back with a small plastic bag. “We even got matching underwear once, wanna see?”

“Ah, no, I don’t think-!!“ he tried to refuse, before the sight of something lacy filled his screen and he couldn’t tear his eyes away for several moments. “O-Oh.”

“It’s so pretty, I hope Yeonwoo actually wears hers..” Ryujin swung the bra around her finger, peeking at a spaced-out Soobin. “I haven’t even…. Soobin?”

Several visions flashed across his mind, including a brief one of his muse sprawled out on pristine white sheets, dressed only in said underwear.

The only thing he hadn’t drawn at this point was a nude portrait….

“NO!” the scream was all Ryujin heard after moments of silence.

“STOP THINKING ABOUT HER LIKE THIS, YOU STUPID PERVERTED ART NERD.” he hit himself on the head several times, so much so that he left a red hand mark on the side of his face. “DO NOT TAINT HER IMAGE WITH YOUR PERVERSE, SINFUL THOUGHTS.”

“Whoa, Soobin, you good?” Ryujin picked up her phone, lying back down on her bed with one eyebrow raised.

“I…. just had some impure thoughts, that’s all.” he slowed his breathing, trying to determine if his flushed face was from the spicy ramen or his own thinking.

“Dude, you’re good.” she rolled her eyes. “At least once or twice in a guy’s life, he’ll think about girls in lingerie. It’s normal.”

“But…. it’s Yeonwoo.”

“Still. Anyways, if you didn’t get a good look, you were probably just seeing things. Was her shirt baggy?”

“….I think so?” Soobin mused, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. “I’m pretty sure..”

“Then there’s your answer.” Ryujin announced, tucking a stuffed animal under her arm. “The next time you see her, she’ll probably look the way she always has.”

“I guess..” he pushed back his messy fringe, sighing. “Ugh, maybe I’m just being paranoid. There’s nothing wrong with Yeonwoo.”

“Right.” Ryujin confirmed, her face leaning in even closer to the camera. “I never noticed before, but you look cute without your glasses..? Why do you never wear your contacts?”

“They’re a hassle.” he answered simply, when in reality, he never wore his contacts because they just made him feel extremely exposed. His glasses were like a curtain, or a safe spot for him to hide behind. Besides, he felt like he drew less attention with them.

“You should try wearing them to school one day. You’d look better than most of the apes there.” Ryujin suggested, yawning.

“I don’t want to.”

“Try it.”

“I don’t like them.”

“Do it.”

“No.”

“What if Yeonwoo likes the look?”

Shoot.

“…...I’ll CONSIDER it.”

Ryujin chuckled to herself, knowing that her friend was weak whenever it came to his muse. She couldn’t wait for Yeonwoo to see that Soobin was a good person both inside AND out, so much so that she had to restrain herself from pinning the artist down and styling his hair properly. Not to mention convincing him to get a uniform that actually FIT instead of the potato sacks that he called clothes.

“You’re annoying, I’m going to bed.”

“Sweet dreams~ About Yeonwoo~~”

Soobin frowned, but a smile tugged at his lips.

 

“……night, stupid.”

 

“Night, nerd.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh i prob stuff my bra as much as yeOnwOo bc a bitch has no tiddies either lmao


	18. AYYYYYYYYteen

He wasn’t supposed to go over until five, but he had already started getting ready at twelve. Lia, who had rolled out of bed late, as she usually did on weekends, rubbed her eyes as she tried to make sure the steaming pancakes on the table weren’t a hallucination.

 

Her brother never made breakfast..

 

She still wondered if she was actually awake when she took a bite out of them and they weren’t terrible at all.

It was suspicious that her breakfast was perfectly made, but her brother was nowhere in sight. It was only until she heard the soft pitter patter of water in the direction of his room. Sure enough, when she turned around, her brother was standing in hallway, wearing a robe along with a towel draped over his head

“Yeonjun, what are you doing?”

A blink and a feeble attempt to cover his face with the towel ensued.

“I thought I told you I had to go out later….”

“Yeah, but it’s not gonna take me four hours to help you..?”

“..O-Oh. I was just worried-“

Lia stepped forward and roughly snatched the towel off of her brother’s head, quickly drying his wet hair and gently slapping him with it.

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t have time to get you ready for your date?”

“We’re working on a project!!!”

“Then why are you freaking out so much?” she pressed. “This art nerd has been head over heels for you ever since you wore that disaster for Yeonwoo’s debut, you’re fine.”

“But-“

“Or am I completely incorrect and you’re trying to impress Wooseok now?”

“Never in a million years would I do this for that asshat, you know that.” his expression immediately changed to one of disgust, his face scrunched up as he said the other’s name.

Lia shook her head and grabbed the plate of pancakes before darting into her brother’s room, already trying to dig through his closet. It wasn’t hard to find an outfit, as Yeonjun’s clothes were slowly being buried under piles of Yeonwoo’s.

“Out of all of the third years, why did it have to be him?” Yeonjun muttered under his breath, legs and arms crossed as he pouted on his bed.

“You’d better thank god that you were put with Soobin.” his sister added. “If Wooseok tries anything, your white knight is right there with you.”

“The kid looks scrawny.. the most he could do to the asshole is teach him how to pick up a pencil.”

“But when it comes to his muse, I feel like he’d surprise you with what he’d be willing do.” Lia tossed a sweater and a skirt onto the bed, dropping a purse on top. “Here. This should do.”

“…..Will-“

“Yes, Soobin will like it.” she answered the oncoming question, shutting her brother up. “Don’t question my work, Yeonjun. Unless you want me to blind you with my eyeliner.”

He gulped and didn’t dare to speak for the next hour.

“Is he coming to pick you up?”

“I.. don’t know, actually.” Yeonjun realized, quickly checking his phone for any messages or calls from the artist. “We never really confirmed that part…”

“If he really likes you, he’ll come without telling.” she answered for him, sliding the crown clip into wig she held in her hands. “Put this on yourself, I’m gonna reheat my pancakes.”

“You liked them?!” Yeonjun asked, surprised.

“They weren’t bad.” she corrected with a smirk, shutting the door behind her.

He looked at the wig in his hands, moving it back and forth so the lights of his room bounced off the clip from various angles. It felt somewhat wrong to be wearing it, since the person Soobin had wanted to wear it didn’t really exist.

At least, she ceased to exist once she pulled her “hair” off every night.

Yeonjun always refused to look in the mirror before the wig was on, for the sake of the little pride he had left and for his own personal satisfaction. If he didn’t have it on, he could bet that he just looked like a pervert, or some brother that had walked into his sister’s room at an unfortunate time. It was weird because of the makeup and the clothes paired with his short hair was already a strange combination, but seeing himself half made-up reminded him that this was just a temporary thing.

Originally it would’ve quelled his embarrassment, but the artist made him wonder if he would be able to keep up this charade until he could muster the courage to reveal himself.

Or in the worst case scenario, if Soobin found out himself.

This image, this person, was only a temporary thing.

Would his relationship with Soobin only last a short while too?

‘How long is Yeonwoo gonna be around for?’ he asked in the back of his mind, slipping the wig over his head. Grabbing Lia’s mirror she left on on bed, he adjusted his locks and combed through them with his fingers. It was like the clip was a constant reminder that Soobin’s feelings for him ceased to exist when he wasn’t Yeonwoo.

“No tripping up, no stupid mistakes today.” he told himself, or at least the “girl” staring back at him in the mirror. “You can’t let him suspect anything!” He thought back to how hard Lia hit him with the bra he forgot to wear when he had sent off Soobin last night, even grabbing his fake chest to confirm that he didn’t forget it.

“You’re Yeonwoo from now- Yeonwoo, not Yeonjun!” he reminded, trying to keep a straight face as he spoke to the mirror. No matter how hard he tried though, he kept finding himself getting distracted by his unironically pretty reflection.

 

‘Goddamit, I’m _cute_.’

 

‘Like, _REALLY cute_.’

 

Even the scowl he saw himself make wasn’t as ugly as he wanted it to be.

Should he be thanking or cursing the deity for his good genes..?

“So this is what the pigs at school pine over every day..” he scoffed, holding the mirror farther away from him and adjusting the wig. A tiny face, innocent-looking features, and smooth skin were all the girls talked about wanting to have, and he couldn’t help but feel a weird sense of pride as he checked off every single one of their desires.

“…....I can understand why.” Yeonjun smirked, looking around for a few seconds before winking at his own reflection.

He couldn’t explain how or why exactly he got dressed in record time and was now taking selfies on his bed, posing in ways that would’ve made pre-Yeonwoo Yeonjun shrivel up and die.

Because Yeonjun would never be caught dead blowing kisses to his phone.

And he definitely wouldn’t be able to explain why he was taking a picture with puckered lips and his hand delicately placed on his cheek when Lia walked in with a plate of pancakes in her hands and a fork in her mouth.

 

Only the sound of the camera filled the silence between them as Yeonjun’s pout turned to an expression of genuine terror.

 

“…..Did I interrupt something?” Lia asked, her teasing tone already beginning to show.

In under five seconds, Yeonjun had already grabbed his phone, his purse, and sprinted out of the room.

He could barely get his shoes on in time, opting to grab the first pair he could find before rushing out of the door, the only thing on his mind being to get away before Lia could whip out her phone or tease him to no end.

“Have fun on your date, Junnie~!” he heard her yell from their front door. She was probably already thinking about ways that she could tease or even blackmail him.

As if she didn’t have enough blackmail material already.

Once he got far away enough from his house and far enough from Lia’s sight, he looked down and sighed when he saw that he was wearing the scuffed pair of Allstars he usually wore to school pre-Yeonwoo.

“I didn’t even grab the new pair…” he pouted and grumbled, kicking the ground. The contrast between the sneakers and his frilly ankle socks stressed him out to no end, as he wanted his image today to be completely void of his true identity.

He walked with his head down, in the general direction of his destination, all the while kicking nonexistent rocks out of his way.

There came a point where he had to stop, because he had almost kicked someone square in the shin.

Someone who wore black Allstars just as worn out as his.

“I’m sorry!! I-!” he looked up to see just who he had been stressing out about for the past twenty four ours, his head bowed down to his phone. “O-Oh, Soobin…”

With the mention of his name, the artist looked up, to make instant eye contact with his muse.

“Yeonwoo!”

All of his doubts were cleansed as soon as he said the name.

“Isn’t Wooseok’s house the other direction?” Yeonjun asked, wondering why and how they had met walking opposite ways. “What were you doing walking this way?”

“I was just texting you that I was going to pick you up.” Soobin waved around his phone. “I mean, if that was okay with you?”

“Yes!! I-I mean, of course it’s okay!” he answered a little too quickly before noticing the artist with something else in his other hand. “Is that more research?"

Soobin held up a plastic bag in his other hand, showing the logo of a convenience store.

“Bread and almond milk!” he announced proudly. “Just for you."

He found the next smile that appeared on his muse’s face to be the prettiest one yet, with the corners of her eyes crinkling and the apples of her cheeks glowing.

Yeonjun was left wondering how this kid managed to find his idea of a perfect afternoon snack and how he was going to be able to keep such a perfect man.

He had to admit, he never knew that they would be walking together into the sunset with almond milk and bread rolls in hand, but any time he actually spent with Soobin was better than the time he spent thinking about him.

“Do you think Wooseok actually bothered to start any of the work?” Soobin asked, turning towards and muse and wondering if his eyes were just playing tricks with him, or if he had really just caught his muse staring at him.

All she let out was a scoff.

“It’s Wooseok. He never does his own work.”

“..You’re right.” he nodded, scolding himself for the stupid question. “You’ve only been here a short while and you notice it already- you learn fast.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m just.. observant!” he added, realizing his mistake after.

“So, you don’t like him at all?”

“….why would I?” Yeonjun raised an eyebrow,

“I don’t know, it’s just..” he paused to think, the straw from the milk carton dangling from his lips. “No matter how badly he treats girls, most of them still wanna date him. I really don’t understand..”

All Yeonjun did was sip his milk, with an unreadable look on his face.

 

“Well, I’m not like most girls, aren’t I?”

 

‘Right, because you AREN’T ONE.’

 

“The reason why he can still attract girls like a magnet even with all of the cruel stuff he’s pulled is because he always comes back with a puppy face and all of his sweet talk, and 99% of the time, they all fall for it.” he explained, finishing with a, “Girls are really weird.”

“You speak as if you knew him before..”

“…..that’s because my brother told me all of this!” he added in a last attempt to save himself.

Soobin nodded, the straw still in his mouth.

“This is another stupid question, but.. do you know what kind of guys most girls would like?”

‘..How am I supposed to know? I’m not one of them!’

 

“Kind.” he found himself saying. “Kind..understanding…and..loving. That’s what all girls would want for their boyfriend. I think.”

Could Soobin tell how cheesy he sounded right now? And how much he was cringing inside?

 

“Have you ever found someone like that?”

 

“I don’t know, I've never dated a guy before.”

 

_Oh shoot_.

 

It wasn’t exactly an untrue statement though..

 

Soobin stared at his muse for a few moments after she spoke, wondering exactly how she had managed to get the school’s male population at her feet if she had never been in a relationship before.

It was amazing just how innocent she really was.

“Never before?” Soobin repeated.

“Well… I.. w-with guys….” he slowly bent his paper carton as he thought of an excuse.

‘She’s so flustered…. is she embarrassed about it? Should I have not asked?’

“-Not that there’s anything wrong with it!!” he grabbed both of his muse’s hands as reassurance, completing flattening the container in her hands. The surprised look in her eyes made him worry if he had done the wrong thing. “It’s fine if you never dated anyone before! It’s definitely not a bad thing!”

“No!! I just…” he looked down at the crumpled carton held in both of their hands, right at the almond cartoon smiling mockingly back at him. “Nevermind.."

A cough later and they continued on their way down the dimming street.

“If you’ve never had a relationship before..” Soobin began the conversation again, the question he was about to ask clawing at his conscience. “Do you like anyone right now?”

The question really was unexpected for him.

Of course he liked someone, why else was he wearing a skirt to school every day? He would’ve done anything for her, because she was his one and only angel. The one that he was risking everything for.

The one that he felt like he was cheating on as he walked down that very street with the artist.

“I do, but some people say I’ll probably end up in a very bad place because of them.” Yeonjun admitted, his eyes hovering to a perfectly-placed neon cross he could spot over the roofs he passed. He thought back to the original excuse he had used with Wooseok before, as the days where he used to go to mass flashed through his mind.

"A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." His middle school self managed to catch the pastor’s voice despite being half-asleep.

‘How ironic..’ he chuckled to himself.

Soobin was quiet, not saying a word, but followed his muse’s gaze to the neon sign.

 

“It’s Ryujin, right?”

 

Her wide eyes and gaping mouth said it all.

“All I can say is that I understand why.” he spoke before she even had a chance to respond. “She has one of the most charming smiles I’ve seen, she’s extremely smart, and she has this habit of putting others before her, even if it gets that little idiot in trouble.”

Yeonjun agreed with every single point he highlighted, reminding him of why he was in his own situation in the first place.

But why did he feel a tiny twist in his stomach at the same time?

‘What does he say to other people about me..?’

“Yeonwoo.”

He hadn’t seen the look on Soobin’s face since the day he almost fell off the school rooftop.

Somehow this guy could have the softest expression in his eyes, but could still manage to convey the underlying strength and protective instinct.

“No matter who or what you like, you should never feel like a bad person for doing the one thing that they preach about all the time.” he gestured to the cross some miles away from them, which seem to dim every second the artist spoke. “You should never be punished for loving someone.”

 

In all of his years of questioning everything, he had never thought of it that way.

While liking Ryujin as himself didn’t break this “rule”, his sweaty palms and warm ears now were a surefire sign that he still wasn’t completely in the clear.

 

“If the divinity is kind enough,” he answered, his eyes never leaving Soobin’s. “Maybe I won’t be.”

 

Ironically, right as they had a quiet moment together, it was interrupted by a flash of headlights and a piercing honk.

Soobin immediately stepped in front of his muse, putting his arm in front of her as the car slipped out of the gates and sped down the road.

“What the hell is that crazy fu-!”

“Well, I think we’re here.” Soobin stared after the matte black convertible that had slipped out.

Yeonjun looked up to see the gold plated numbers and the surname that adorned the brick post of the house, along with a stone lion sitting on top. The black gates didn’t close after the car left, instead the person he was dreading to see all day appeared, dressed in a silk robe complete with a monogram.

“Welcome to the Jung residence!” Wooseok greeted, the slight slur in his voice attributed to the spilling glass of champagne in his hand. Yeonjun winced as the older took his hand and held it up to his lips. “I was waiting for you, baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok but just TRY and tell me that yeonjun/"yeonwoo's" narcissistic and extra ass wouldn't take hella pictures of himself smh  
> he got some nice pouty lips im jealous >:cc


	19. mineteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: hints of non-con

“If you guys want something to eat, I can get Jeff to whip up something.” Wooseok announced after leading the two of them through his foyer, his arm around ’Yeonwoo’s’ shoulders.

“Who’s Jeff?” Yeonjun asked in the midst of taking in the sheer size of the place.

“The chef. Or is that the name of my driver…?”

“We just had an early dinner before we came here, I think we’re fine.” Soobin interrupted from behind the two of them. “Do you happen to have a quiet place with a working computer where we can work on the project?”

“There’s like three MacBooks in the kitchen. Another one in the living room. I think dad mentioned something about a study? Whatever that’s used for.”

“The study should be fine. Do you have a USB cable as well?”

“US- what?”

The look of shock from Soobin only made Yeonjun shake his head. This kid was way more spoiled and way more stupid than he thought.

“I’ll let you take care of all of the nerd stuff.” Wooseok waved him off. “For all intensive purposes, I have people who do that for me already, so.. I can literally have them do all of the work for me and Yeonwoo.”

“It’s ‘all intents and purposes’.” Soobin corrected. He could already tell that Wooseok was a person who hated being wrong, so he was trying every possible thing to irk him.

It was quite fun, to be totally honest.

“Whatever.” the elder grumbled, before leaning in to gently brush the back of his hand against Yeonjun’s face, making the other jump back in surprise. “Should we go to the study now, baby?”

With a tight smile, Yeonjun grabbed his ear and pulled.

“Tell me the way and we’ll go, _sweetie~_!” he gritted his teeth as he said the last word, smirking to himself as the other got out a ‘left’ from his painful position. This form of torture was quite satisfying when he wasn’t on the other side, he had to admit.

The size of the study was almost as impressive as the size of the actual house, as the books that lined one side of the wall mirrored the rows of desktop computers on the other wall. A small circular table and chairs were displayed in the middle, with a huge television looming over it.

“So this is what the study looks like..” Wooseok breathed, before clearing his throat. “So like, what’s up with this project thing?”

“The topic itself is very general, but I’ve narrowed it down to three aspects so it’ll be easier for each of us to research.” Soobin immediately put sat himself down at the table, spreading out the sheets of paper that Yeonjun hadn’t even noticed him carrying around the entire time. “There’s the royal family, significant battles of the era, and also popularized myths during the time.”

“I can do the battles!” Yeonjun immediately pulled up a seat next to the artist, a little too close for Wooseok’s liking as he sat across from the two. “I get to research generals and stuff, right?”

‘God, she’s so cute when she’s excited..’

“I’ll do the myths, I guess. Sounds like the least boring.” Wooseok put his head in his hand, his other hand tracing the rim of his champagne glass. The next fifteen or so minutes felt like hours to him, as he copied and pasted bits and pieces of the Wikipedia page onto a document. This wasn’t his main focus point though.

He may not know what a USB is, but he wasn’t dumb to not notice the signs between his object of interest and _HER_ object of interest.

A nudge there.

A short side glance here.

An accidental hand touch while trying to reach for a pencil.

A brush of her hair against his cheek as they peered at their shared laptop.

Another hand touch, not to accidental this time.

A stifled laugh from her, as he pointed to something supposedly funny on the screen.

And several small smiles to each other throughout all of this.

He stood up, slamming his hands on the table and making both of them jump.

“…Is there a problem, Wooseok?” Soobin asked, his hand itching to pull his muse right out of the room.

“I just remembered.. we can start our presentation by connect the computer to the TV screen. My father mentioned it briefly. Once.”

“Oh.” Soobin was surprised- the guy actually suggested a good idea. “Well, if you can find cords to hook it up..”

“-I don’t know, the tech guys always did it for me.” he snapped, looking dead into the nerd’s eyes, a plan starting to brew in his twisted mind. “I think the cords are under the desktop computers, though.”

“I.. guess I could help set it up?”

“Good.” Wooseok nodded, casually walking over and grabbing Yeonwoo’s hand. “I just remembered that I have some.. textbooks we can use for this in my room, so I’ll be taking Yeonwoo to help me with them.”

“Are you that weak to need my-“ Yeonjun stopped himself when another thought came to his mind.

 

He was in his house.. he was going to his room….

There was a very high possibility that he could find something to blackmail the asshole with once Yeonjun came back…

 

If he could distract him for a few seconds…….

“Um, I think she should stay here with me.” Soobin stood up, grabbing Yeonwoo’s other hand. “You seem sturdy enough to get a couple of textbooks yourself.”

‘Who knew that there would be two GUYS trying to fight over me one day?’

The two of them stood there, glaring at each other before an unexpected answer came.

“Soobin, I’ll be fine.”

He let go of his muse’s hand in shock.

Did she just choose the asshole over him?

Wooseok smirked, putting his hand on Yeonwoo’s shoulders and leading her out of the door.

“We’ll be back soon, don’t worry!"

As she turned to leave with the older, she turned back and blinked twice, as if she was letting him know that there was a reason for her decision.

He really hoped there was, as he watched the door click after them.

The same gnawing feeling that showed up at Yeonwoo’s live modeling last time returned, and he wasn’t sure if he considered it an old friend or an enemy. All he knew was that he was handling the cable in his hands a little too harshly for his own taste.

“What the hell is that asshole up to?” he muttered to himself, hearing it echo throughout the empty room.

Maybe it really was just an innocent trip to go get textbooks and Wooseok just wanted to spend time with Yeonwoo.

Yeah, right.

He probably wants to look at her butt while they’re walking around.

Probably more than that.

They were going to his bedroom, right?

…..Exactly how many girls had he brought home to that exact room?

Soobin couldn’t stop himself as his head provided flashes of an absolute nightmare.

Wooseok shutting his bedroom door with a loud click.

Backing his muse to a wall.

Smashing his face against hers.

The two of them falling onto the sheets.

And his muse…. enjoying all of this.

He dropped the mess of cables to the ground.

This was the fairytale he had seen before.

The dragon was Wooseok.

And he was the white knight.

He got to the door of the study in lightning speed, flinging it open and rushing out to the barren hallway, to be met with rows of doors and stairs on both sides.

“You’re the white knight..” he spoke, unsure if it was to the nonexistent audience of his story or to himself. “YOU ARE the white knight!”

He didn’t even care how cringeworthy he sounded, speeding into the hallway in search for his battle.

 

\- - -

 

It was like being Yeonwoo gave him the excuse to admit that the size of the asshole’s house was impressive. They had just walked for a good thirty seconds, and he was pretty sure that they were in a completely different part of the house now.

“There’s a salon where mother meets with her aestheticians every other week.” Wooseok pointed to more doors, which were beginning to look all the same to Yeonjun. “There’s also a private sauna, too.”

“You have your own sauna?”

“Yeah, you should come again and try it out sometime.” he winked, his eyes trailing down to his chest.

‘Ugh, _pig_.'

“Maybe when you’re not here, sure!”

A frown was threatening to expose itself, but he kept his smile as he led Yeonwoo to the end of the hallway.

“Here’s the cherry on top- the master bedroom, a.k.a. my room.” he put a hand on the chrome doorknob and pushed in, to reveal what would’ve made pre-Yeonwoo Yeonjun cry.

He was still trying to hold himself back from crying when he saw the inside, though.

An entire row of arcade games, including several game consoles lined the back wall, while a shelf of what he could only assume were the games himself taking up another. A huge screen playing snippets of whatever movies he had was right in front of the biggest bed he had ever seen, right next to a plethora of junk foods and a kitchenette. A punching bag, a bench, and weights took up the rest of the space, and there was still room left over to display three motorcycles and several skateboards, all unscuffed and pristine, as if they were never taken out.

It was an absolute mancave.

“Y-You….” his mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water, trying to decide which way to run first. “A movie screen? Video games? Popcorn?? Beer?!! Video games?? Motorcycles??! Skateboards?? VIDEO GAMES???!!”

“…..Well, I didn’t expect you to like this shit.” was all Wooseok said before Yeonjun ran off to peruse over the games in the case.

“All of the limited edition Urban Hunter games…. with special features.. and the original Bloodblashers???!!” he breathed, forgetting to control himself and completely forgetting his original purpose of hanging out in the asshole’s room. “He even has the unreleased 2020 prototype!!”

He wouldn’t mind if he just… borrowed it for a bit, right?

It was just as much leverage as blackmail- after all, games were like babies to boys.

Or at least he wouldn’t mind if Yeonwoo borrowed it…

“Wooseok?” he called out, catching the attention of the older. “Do you think you could lend this game to me for a couple of days?”

“Now what would you want with that old thing, baby?”

The pet name made him want to choke him with his wig and get out of the house as soon as he got his hands on the game.

“I wanted to try playing games and this one looks interesting..” he made the most general excuse he could.

“I don’t know, babe, I don’t want you scaring yourself with the stuff that goes on inside the game.” Wooseok sucked in his breath, putting his finger under Yeonwoo’s chin. “You’re a pretty thing, I wouldn’t want you to hurt your dainty little hands with the controller.”

‘ _What the fuck, I’m a girl, not a fucking flower!!_ ’

With the most innocent smile and his thigh hovering close to the older’s danger zone, he swallowed and pressed himself up against his worst enemy.

 

“Please, Wooseok~?”

 

He wanted to threw up.

 

..He almost did.

 

 **ALMOST**.

 

“Sure thing, baby.” he finally answered with a creepy smile, after a few seconds of being flustered by Yeonwoo’s sudden actions.

‘YES!!!’

“But.. it doesn’t come for free.”

‘….Um, what?’

 

It happened too quickly.

Now Wooseok wasn’t book-smart, but he had mastered the precise technique of getting girls.

And this time, he didn’t care if his object of interest was willing or not.

He had held Yeonwoo’s arms to her sides as he smashed his lips against hers, earning a satisfying cry of protest. While she was still trying to get over the surprise, he took advantage of it and managed to back her all the way to the wall.

“What the FU-!!” her voice came out significantly deeper this time, but there wasn’t enough time for him to notice or react before he kissed her again. He held her by her face so it wouldn’t be easy for her to wriggle out of his grip.

He was going to claim her, and he was going to do it tonight.

Panic was the only thing racing through Yeonjun’s mind, along with how he was going to boil his lips later.

 

His worst enemy just KISSED him.

 

“You… piece of shit..” he managed to get out between kisses, squeezing his eyes shut as he pushed the other off.

“Now when did my baby get such a dirty mouth?” Wooseok breathed, pinning both of Yeonwoo’s arms to the wall. “Why don’t you get it dirty with something else?”

“Never will I ever, asshole.” Yeonjun growled. “I’ll kill you."

At this point his arms were pretty much immobile. He tried to calculate every single method he had to get out of his position, but based on the fact that he was still trying to get over the sheer fact that Wooseok had managed to even get him against the wall.

It frustrated him to no end, that he could do nothing but hurl threats.

“You’re really beautiful, y’know baby?” he whispered, brushing his hand against the side of her face.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK, FUCK!!’

A couple weeks ago, he never would’ve found himself in this situation.

As Wooseok leaned in again for another kiss, he squeezed his eyes shut and he managed to free one of his arms, prepping for the biggest punch of his life.

All he saw was black, but then he felt a giant weight being lifted off of him.

His question to whether it was divine intervention was answered when he heard sounds of struggle and a single loud blow before opening his eyes to the sight of Soobin standing over Wooseok’s unconscious body.

“Did he just come for me?” he thought aloud, catching the attention of his savior.

Was it wrong that he found Soobin extremely attractive when he was heavily breathing and had beads of sweat dripping down his face? Not to mention the scowl on his face that only made his sharp features stand out even more.

“…You idiot, you could’ve gotten-!” he sputtered before Soobin appeared next to him in two steps and managed to scoop him up in his arms. Naturally, his arms flew around his neck, accidentally ending up way too close to his face. “Soobin…?”

“Let me take you away from this filthy heathen, my princess.” he spoke gently. Yeonjun honestly didn’t even question why the other was speaking as if he was in a historical drama, he was only focused that somehow, this stupid, white-knighting headass was now in his life.

And he wasn’t leaving any time soon.

“..Princess?”

He only realized his mistake after, shaking his head as his default lost-puppy face came back. The white knight persona had taken over his mind for a bit too long, apparently.

“I-I mean, my muse!!”

Yeonjun stifled a laugh, covering his mouth his hand before pulling himself so close to Soobin that the tips of their noses just touched.

“Let us depart then, my knight.”

 

\- - -

 

Soobin managed to get out of his house and get through the huge gates before they closed behind them with a loud clang, all of this with his muse still in his arms.

Usually, if this was anyone else, Yeonjun would’ve been kicking and screaming for them to put him down, along with a few threats and punches along the way.

Of course, it was different for Soobin.

‘He came for me..’ Yeonjun repeated in his head, staring at the dark outlines of the houses they passed by, only briefly illuminated by the occasional streetlight. ‘He came…..’

How did he manage to find him in that huge house?

Wasn’t he fixing something in the study?

How the hell did he knock Wooseok out so easily?

How was he carrying him so easily?

And most importantly..

WHY did he come for him?

His view of the dark houses shifted for a moment, as he watched the yellow glow of the light highlight Soobin’s bangs and his face. A tightening in his chest was all he could feel, as he naturally pulled himself closer to him.

‘You could’ve taken that guy on your own!! If the stupid nerd didn’t barge in-‘

‘Ugh, shut _UP_.’

Soobin’s mind wasn’t that quiet either.

‘I JUST……DID I REALLY…. OH MY GOD- I PUNCHED HIM!!!’

The rush of adrenaline from his very short interaction with Wooseok still hadn’t fully subsided, as he felt the energy from the one punch still coursing through his body. Until then, he had never felt the power he had in that one moment.

But he was conflicted.

He really didn’t like fighting- he had even condoned it as “barbaric” at one point. But would this be what he would have to go through if he wanted to protect his muse?

Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw her looking at him. Staring at him, even.

He really hoped his body wasn’t playing tricks on him.

“You came.”

Soobin stopped on the street corner, finally looking down at her and trying to keep his heart rate at a normal speed.

It was hopeless though, he swore it was about to leap out of his chest just at the soft sound of his muse’s voice.

For a few seconds, they simply stared, not knowing what to do next.

But neither of them knew that the other just didn’t want to look away.

A cough.

 

“….You can put me down now..”

 

“Oh-!” Soobin affirmed before setting his muse down, brushing himself off, and standing up straight.

Another minute of staring.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his volume dropping to an all-time low. “I got you out of there so quickly I didn’t get a chance to ask..”

The sudden question startled Yeonjun, his hand flying up to grab his chest.

“I’m.. fine…”

“Um.. I grabbed your bag on the way out for you too.” Soobin held out the purse with two hands, his head bowed down in a dramatic fashion. “Here you go.”

‘..this kid…'

“Thanks..” was all he got out, taking the bag from the nerd’s hand and wondering just how the savior that just knocked out one of the toughest guys from school out turned into this extremely awkward, extremely CUTE, nerd in less than ten minutes.

He sure was weird..

But who knew what would’ve happened if the nerd didn’t show up in time. Perhaps Wooseok would’ve found a surprise in his prey, and perhaps Yeonjun would’ve had to transfer schools.

Maybe even to another country.

“T-Thank you for that!” he blurted out.

‘SHUT UP!! SHUT UP SHUT UP SH-‘

“Ireallydon’tknowwhatIwould’vedoneifyoudidn’tcomebecauseIwaspanickingandIcouldn’tpushhimoffandIdidn’tknowwhattodobecauseIhaven’tworkedoutinawhileandIwaswearingthisstupidskirtandIdidn’twanttolosetohim-“

In less than a second, Yeonjun found his face buried in the nerd’s shoulder, all of his doubts, panic, and wild thoughts washed away.

The two sides of his mind had these respective reactions.

 

‘He’s so warm..’

 

‘???????????????!11111?!!!1!!!!!?’

 

“You didn’t lose to him. You won because you got away."

Hesitating for half a second, Soobin’s hand wavered before he placed it on his muse’s head, gently petting her.

“I’ll always take care of you.” he spoke into the quiet of the night. “Please don’t forget that.”

Was it wrong that his position felt so natural, and so.. right?

Was it wrong that he wanted nothing than to just have the nerd comfort him every time he hated himself for whatever stupid thing he did?

‘Just what is this kid….’

 

Who are you?

 

WHAT are you?

 

And why does he want to protect me? No, not me…. Yeonwoo?

 

I showed up to school in a wig that looked like it was made from the hair at the bottom of a shower and a skirt that looked like it was gotten off the discount rack at a carpet store… he had been pining after me since that day….

 

Was he really just his muse?

 

Was this just a cruel joke?

 

With two hands, Yeonjun pushed himself away, stumbling back down the street.

“Why?” he began, his grip tightening on the chain of his purse. “Just what are you? Why do you want to take care of me, protect me? Why do you _care_  so much?”

‘Why do you drive me crazy like this?’ he continued in his head, watching as the surprised expression on Soobin’s face turn into something else. ‘Why, why, WHY?’

 

A step forward, and a step back.

 

Another step forward, and another step back.

 

This continued on until Yeonjun was leaning against the pole of the streetlight, with nowhere else to go. He was pretty sure that he had grabbed his bag so tightly that he would have marks on his hands later.

The bulb of the light flickered a bit before Soobin finally stopped in front of him, his entire frame highlighted with a golden glimmer.

 

 

“Because I like you.”

 

 

What a simple answer.

But oh, Yeonjun’s thoughts were not simple at all.

Anyone could’ve said that.

But the fact that the artist had just said it himself, aloud, and TO him..

His face immediately exploded with heat when Soobin’s hands reached for his. With the softest touch, his power was gone.

His purse fell to the ground with a quiet thump.

All that was on Soobin’s mind, though, was how beautiful his muse looked under yellow.

He moved closer, tucking her hair behind her ear.

He didn’t have any idea where his bravery came from, but all he knew was that he meant what he said.

 

‘I really do like you..’

 

Closer..

 

Yeonjun’s gaze moved from Soobin’s eyes, down to his red lips.

 

Closer….

 

He couldn’t.

 

Yeonjun sucked in his bottom lip, averting his head to the side and causing Soobin to stop moving his face toward him.

 

‘She stopped...'

 

‘I can’t..’

 

He looked up again, blinking and trying his hardest to convey his guilt and his conflicting feelings with a single look.

 

“I.. can’t.”

 

‘Ah…. so she doesn’t like you that way after all….. YOU IDIOT, YOU PROBABLY SCARED HER SINCE SHE’S NEVER BEEN IN A RELATIONSHIP BEFORE!!'

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“

“Soobin.”

His full name caught his attention.

“I think.. I like you too.” Yeonjun confessed, squeezing both of his hands. “But you know about….”

“Ah..”

“I don’t want to mislead you and I have a lot of shi-stuff I have to figure out on my own.. so give me some time.”

Soobin nodded vigorously, his glasses sitting crookedly on his nose when he stopped, and earning a stifled laugh from his muse.

“Take as much time as you need. As long as you’re happy.”

“Thank you, Soobin.” he offered a small smile in response.

The same smile that he loved, and the same smile he wanted to protect.

With the last ounce of courage, he opened his mouth.

“Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Of course.”

“It doesn’t have to be a _real_  one.. but… can I kiss you?”

Yeonjun was surprised at the sudden request, his cheeks still stained a bright pink, but nevertheless he nodded.

 

A brush of his lips against his left cheek.

 

One against his right cheek.

 

“H-Hey… that’s two!” he got out with his inevitable smile.

“Last one, I promise!” Soobin held up a finger, a cheeky smile appearing. “At least let me be a bit greedy while I wait.”

 

The one on his forehead was the best one so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love fucking with emotions >:)
> 
> no but fr tho  
> feelings arent as simple as must kdramas and anime portray it is theyre really fkn complicated so even if it seems like the obvious answer is s00bs poor yeonjunnie needs to figure out A LOT of shit first cccccccc:


	20. twenty thousand years later

He was expecting Wooseok to try to and stop him in the hallway that morning, considering the fact that he spotted his crew in a circle around the guy’s locker like usual.

But as soon as their eyes met, Wooseok cleared his throat and looked down. A hand hovered over his cheek, where he could see hues of black and blue under the makeup he had attempted to cover it up with.

“Lia, go ahead to class.” Yeonjun told his sister, pulling his backpack straps tighter and grinding his teeth together. “I have business to take care off.”

“Go get him, sis.” Lia nodded her head towards his target, a twinkle in her eyes.

Commotion in the hallway started to quiet as Yeonjun made his way to the crowd, which instantly parted for him.

Wooseok could see her coming in the corner of his eyes, and for once in his life, he didn’t know whether to confront her or hide. He looked back and forth a few times, before forcing himself to make eye contact with Yeonwoo, for the sake of his pride.

“Are you just going to pretend what you pulled didn’t happen?” Yeonjun asked, wiping the foundation off of his face to reveal the fresh bruise on the other’s cheek. “Is that why you’re using even more makeup than me to cover this up?”

“W-What are you talking about?” Wooseok scoffed, jerking his head away from his goddess’ hand. “I haven’t seen you since F-Friday..”

“Capt’n, you just said you hit that last night, though!”

“Can you SHUT UP?” he hissed at his junior, who slowly backed into the crowd.

‘Is this guy SERIOUSLY telling people I slept with him??!’

Yeonjun clenched his fist, using all of his might to not just lash out and bash his face in.

“I don’t care what you’re telling your minions, I think all that I need to hear from you right is your apology.” he demanded, managing to cool himself down.

What he said next set him off, though.

“Sweetie, you would’ve enjoyed it sooner or later.” Wooseok used his last shred of pride to say the sentence aloud, cracking an obnoxious smile. “What do I need to apologize for?

A knee flew at lightning speed.

Straight into his crotch.

He doubled over, pain racing through his lower half. He saw Yeonwoo bend down and rest her head in her hands, wearing the most innocent smile as she watched him writhe in pain.

“The only thing I enjoyed was doing  _ that _ .”

“Fuck….” was all he got out.

Yeonjun observed as his victim looked around, and saw something that made him duck his head down to his chest to avoid looking at it.

“Yeonwoo?”

The onlookers had parted, so that there was a direct pathway from the scene to the person who had just called his name.

Choi Soobin stepped forward, a bouquet of roses in his arms.

It was shocking that he wasn’t breaking down from all of the stares and whispers directed to him.

It was a different story for Yeonjun.

“Soobin!!!” he jumped up, pulling his skirt hem down and blowing the nonexistent stray hairs out of his face. Noticing the roses, he was already getting vague flashes of THAT day again.

“What just…. oh.” Soobin looked down at the figure on the floor, who glanced up at him, only to look away again. “It’s him.” He spoke with venom in his voice, emphasizing the last word.

“Oh, don’t worry, I took care of him already!” Yeonjun rocked back and forth on his feet, giving a rather threatening look to the onlookers. “I don’t know why everyone is STILL staring, though!!”

The students immediately started dispersing, but their ears were still open and ready to hear what ‘Yeonwoo’ would say to the nerd that just showed up.

How could they possibly have any relationship?

“Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” Soobin asked, a look of concern evident on his face. “If you need me to do something again, I’ll-“

“I told you, it’s okay!” he blocked Soobin from possibly giving his victim another bruise, instead opting for pulling him through the crowd until they were in a slightly less crowded hallway.

“So.. I didn’t steal these from Mrs. Park.” Soobin announced, holding out the well-wrapped bouquet to his muse. “The florist did have red roses, but they were kind of expensive, so I just got yellow ones. N-Not that I wouldn’t be willing to spend money on you, but I felt like yellow roses were more appropriate too…”

‘God, he’s so cute when he rambles..’ was all Yeonjun thought as he watched the nerd go on about his journey to the florist and his breakdown of various meanings of flower colors.

“What do yellow roses mean?” Yeonjun asked, rubbing a petal in between his fingers.

“Friendship.”

‘Ah.. right… friends.’

“They’re pretty..” he got out, hiding the slight disappointment in his heart. “Thank you, Soobin!”

The bell signaled that more students were about to flood the hallway any second, so the two of them ducked into their classroom before they were trampled.

There was also a part of Yeonjun that didn’t want to deal with the gossip that was probably going around, thanks to Wooseok.

As he was playing with the bright yellow petals of the flowers at his desk, his mind was running wild.

‘Did he misunderstand last night? Does he think I’m not interested in him at all?’

‘Why would he get me roses, then? Do friends do that normally?’

‘Maybe I should’ve just chose him..’

‘But I can’t just forget about Ryujin…..’

‘UGH, WHY AM I SO STUPID?’

Soobin’s mind was no exception either.

‘Did she misunderstand? Does she think I’m not interested in her at all now?’

‘Were yellow roses too much? Maybe I should’ve just gotten a different flower entirely..’

‘I really hope she chooses me..’

‘But even if she doesn’t, I still want her to be happy…..’

‘UGH, WHY AM I SO DUMB?’

Both of their thoughts, however, were paused by the sound of a heavy bag hitting the teacher’s desk up front.

It was attention-catching because their female teacher didn’t carry a bag around.

And the obviously male figure up front definitely bore no resemblance to their teacher- they could tell even though his head was down, setting up a pristine laptop and freshly printed papers.

He was dressed smartly yet stylishly, donning a grey plaid suit and vest with a patterned tie, the color of the tie matching the pocket square peeking out of the jacket. Wide, sloping shoulders filled out the suit, and it was nicely highlighted by his impressive height as well as his olive skin tone. He had taller than average, he could easily reach the projector button on the ceiling. Polished shoes, neatly combed hair, and an expensive-looking watch finished off the look. Altogether it looked like he belonged in a CEO’s office rather than a high school.

To Yeonjun, there was something off about him.

Of course, the female population in the classroom was already buzzing with whispers and glances between each other. The male population (including Yeonjun) was more than confused.

A giant sigh made the classroom silent.

“Now that I’m out of the principal’s office….” the man muttered, before proceeding to take off his jacket and vest and loosen his tie.

He hadn’t even said more than a sentence and the girls were already squeaking and squealing in excitement.

They only grew more ecstatic when he rolled up his sleeves to his elbows and combed his fingers through his hair, creating an effortless style that would’ve taken half of the guys in the room more than an hour to do.

‘Oh.'

'Oh my god.’

‘OH MY-‘

“Your teacher has a personal emergency and told the principal that she’s going to be taking off for a while.” the man began, wearing a bright smile on his face, a complete flip from his original impression. “My name is Mr. Jung and I will be your temporary substitute teacher until she comes back, nice to meet you all!”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jung~” the girls in the classroom practically sang, already head over heels for the man.

“He’s pretty easy on the eyes for a teacher.” Ryujin remarked, trying to see over the heads of all the girls who all sat a bit straighter in their seats for the teacher to notice them. “He looks so young he could pass for a student here..”

“He does look pretty young..” Soobin agreed, watching as the female students started to offer snacks to the older man.

Yeonjun was silent, an unreadable look in his eyes.

“I’m going to take attendance, so make sure you can hear your name!” Mr. Jung announced over the various coos and squeals of his new fan club. “Soohyun Ahn..?”

“Over here, teacher~!”

He had a strange aura around him as soon as he entered the room, Yeonjun noticed. From his pristine suit and shiny new laptop, and even the way he carried himself, there was something off.

It was like he was someone Yeonjun knew from the past, but different.. somehow.

Why did that name, Jung, sound so familiar.

When he took off half of his outfit and messed up his hair, he slowly became more and more recognizable. He became more human and less of a runway model, shedding his uptight image for a much more comfortable one.

One that Yeonjun swore he had seen before..

But where?

“Ryujin Shin?”

“Here!”

Mr. Jung had made his way across the classroom already, his face covered by the attendance sheet. Yeonjun craned his neck to see- to confirm, if it was really someone he knew.

“Choi….” the young teacher stopped in front of Yeonjun’s desk, moving the paper away from his face and coincidentally making direct eye contact with the person in front of him.

Eye contact that he didn’t break for what seemed like forever.

“…….Yeonjun..?”

 

It was like a flood of nostalgia pulled him under in that instant, and he nearly drowned in it.

 

The last time he saw this guy was the first year of middle school, as he watched a younger Mr. Jung march up the steps of the high school and turn around, wearing a bright smile on his face and waving his newly obtained honors diploma in the air.

The only guy that he truly admired.

And the only man that he ever questioned his feelings for, although he would never admit that fact to any living soul on this planet.

Yes, the almighty Golden Hyung’s first love was a boy.

Leave to the divinity to serve him this man while he was in the most complicated situation in his life so far. And it was only Yeonjun’s luck that his first love was still just as handsome and shining as brightly as he did five years ago.

“-Yeonjun is on medical leave, Mister.” Ryujin’s voice cut through the longest five seconds of his life.

“Oh.. he is?” Mr. Jung raised an eyebrow, his eyes never leaving Yeonjun’s. “Then this must be..….. Yeonwoo?”

He forgot how to use his vocal chords for five seconds, before Ryujin coughed.

“U-Uh…. yes! I’m Yeonwoo..!” he managed to get out, his voice coming out higher than usual.

Mr. Jung slowly nodded, before forcing himself to tear his eyes away from the person he obviously recognized.

Yeonjun could already feel the stares from the other girls in the class as the teacher brushed past him to sit down at the desk in front.

'He must have recognized me, right? What else would that look be?'

‘How come he has to see me when I’m like THIS??!’

‘And how can one person get even more good looking than he was before?? It’s been five years????’

“Okay class, we’re going to be starting a new unit in history.” Mr. Jung pulled up a presentation on his laptop, which normally would’ve earned a plethora of groans and complaints had it been the class’ former teacher.

There wasn’t a peep.

“Make sure to pay attention to the slide _changes_.” he emphasized the last word, shooting a quick glance to Yeonjun’s side of the classroom.

From his neutral expression and furrowed brows, Yeonjun honestly couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

He honestly didn’t know what he was going to do.

Mr. Jung shot several looks and glances over to him in the duration of his lecture, even opting to stare at him for a solid thirty seconds before someone brought him back to reality with a question.

Was it wrong that every time Yeonjun felt his new teacher’s eyes on him, he could feel his heart rate quicken? Just like how it did when he was a tiny middle schooler that turned red every time his senior would give him something as simple as a noogie.

A part of him felt like he was cheating on his artist.

But the part that dictated most of his day-to-day actions told him that it was okay.

‘The nerd agreed that he would give you time.’

‘Doesn’t that mean you’re free to explore your options? Even just a bit?’

‘Wow, way to be a terrible person, Yeonjun.’

“I’m going to end this a bit early, since the bell is going to go off in a minute or so.” Mr. Jung checked his watch before shutting off his computer and earning a sigh of relief from his students. It was a major change from when their former teacher used to teach until the very last second. “However, can a student stay for a bit after school and help me clean the chalkboard, please?”

“He didn’t even use the chalkboard today…” Soobin noticed. Still, the entire female population’s hands shot up, along with various calls like “Pick me, teacher~!”, “I’m the best at cleaning boards~!!”.

“How about Choi Yeonwoo?”

Yeonjun head shot up from his silent thinking, looking for the person who called his fake name before realizing it was coming from his first love.

“Stay after class with me, will you?” he self-confirmed with his annoying, but painfully attractive crooked smile.

Yeonjun could only gulp and nod in response as several whines and complaints came from both the guys and the girls in the room.

Even a minute after, when the classroom became empty save for him and his teacher, he still hadn’t made a peep.

…If he grabbed his bag and bolted, he could still make it out.

Calculating how many steps it would take him to get out the door, he swung his bag over his shoulders and stood up, quickly shuffling out of his seat and almost making it out of the classroom before Mr. Jung simply sauntered over to the door and closed it with a soft click.

Yeonjun looked to see the same neutral expression he had been wearing for the entire lecture.

‘..Damn, he’s almost taller than me...'

“So.. Miss Yeonwoo.” he spoke the name with a hint of mockery, backing him to the closed door. “Have we ever met before?”

“Mr. Jung, I think you have me mistaken for s-someone else..” Yeonjun mentally cursed himself for stuttering, still questioning why, after all of these years, he was still getting all flustered and bothered by his senior (that he was quite sure didn’t reciprocate his feelings).

“I want to.. conduct a little experiment to see something.” he moved even closer, his hooded eyes seeming more threatening in the current light than before. “Do you mind?”

“I-I….” he could barely get out an answer before Mr. Jung grabbed him by the shoulders. “Uhh…! I’m-“

He saw his knee coming for his Gates of Heaven just in time for him to bend forward, his hands flying down to his area in an attempt to protect himself from what was coming.

Or rather, what he thought was coming.

“You flinched!!” Mr. Jung jumped back, pointing a finger at him with his mouth wide open.

The expression on his face wasn’t horror, or shock, like Yeonjun expected. Rather, there was a smile.

“N-No, I didn’t!” he sputtered, his ears growing awfully warm. “I was.. adjusting my skirt..!!”

“You definitely did flinch!” he pressed. “You can’t fool me, you little fox..”

“Don’t call me that, Hobi!!!”

Shit.

Yeonjun’s hands flew over his mouth, the growing fear evident in his eyes. The cocky crooked smile on his teacher’s face was all he needed to confirm that he had indeed lost.

“In my life, there’s only been one person that hates that nickname so much to the point where they call me that nickname.” Mr. Jung moved closer, to the point where Yeonjun was now sweating out of fear and something else he wasn’t sure of under the wig. “What are you doing, Yeonjun?”

Exposed.

“Oh, please. I could tell just from looking closely at you for a minute, don’t be so shocked.” he scoffed, his hands on his hips. “When I told you to grow up well, I didn’t think it’d be like…. this.” he looked at Yeonjun up and down, making the younger extremely self-conscious in record time. “Who knew you’d pull it off this well, though.”

“Wh-What?” he was taken aback by the sudden compliment.

“I wanted you to stay after because one; I needed to make sure it really was my little fox and two-“ his hand moved to gently pet the top of his head with a warm smile. “Because I found you pretty.”

**SHIT** ..

Now he really felt like he was cheating- his entire face felt warm and there was no sign of it cooling down any time soon.

Since when did he become so flustered over people calling him pretty? A few months ago, he would’ve decked anyone who even mentioned that word and his name in the same sentence.

“Still, this is quite unexpected from the boy who said he was going to ‘out-man’ me one day.”

“I can still out-man you!” Yeonjun shot back, puffing out his chest. “A hundred percent!!!"

“Sure…..” the teacher whistled, his eyes briefly trailing down to his junior’s currently stuffed chest. “So do you want to tell me why you’re ‘Yeonwoo’ or should I just let you go on your merry little way?”

‘It’s to win over a girl, of course.’

‘…..And maybe a guy.'

“It’s-…” he paused, thinking over all of the events that happened up to that point. “It’s complicated. I didn’t want to do this, remember that!”

“So it’s for love.”

“H-“

“Don’t ask. I know you better than you.” the elder stopped him, crossing his arms over his chest with a smug expression. “I won’t ask any more questions- I’ll play along with this elaborate charade you’ve got going on.”

“Thank y-“

“If! If you call me what you used to when you were smaller.”

“I haven’t used that ever since you ran off to Harvard.. But fine.” Yeonjun gave in, cheeks staining red as he thought back to how eagerly he had used the elder’s name five years ago.

“Fine, what?”

“Fine.. Hoseok.”

The giddy smile on his face was enough evidence that he had waiting for Yeonjun to say it for quite a while.

“Oh, I forgot.”

“What?”

“That wasn’t what you called me when you really wanted something from me..” he put a finger to his mouth, pretending to think with his stupid smile. “There’s another one, isn’t there?”

Oh hell, no.

“Nope.” Yeonjun turned away from him, opening the door to an empty hallway.

“It would make me the happiest man in the world to hear a cute girl say it.”

“Go and find one then. There isn’t one here.”

“Call me Hobi.”

“Nooooope.”

“Just once.”

“Nope. Don’t wanna.”

“Hobi. Say it.”

“Never.” Yeonjun refused, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing, leaving the classroom with his first love close behind.

“I’ll give you an A in the class if you say it.”

“I already have an A+ in the class, thank you very much.”

“I’ll buy you ice cream if you say it”

He stopped in the hallway, looking back at his teacher and senior with a glint in his eyes.

“I’ll do steak.” he insisted.

“Steak?!” Hoseok repeated. “Since when did your tastes get so expensive?”

“Final offer.”

“Ahh, fine, fine, we’ll go for steak!” he gave up, shaking his head with a smile. “You’ve become a scheming little fox, haven’t you?”

“But you’re still willing to buy this  _ pretty  _ scheming fox a meal.” Yeonjun teased, grabbing onto the strap of his messenger bag and following him out to the exit.

“For once, you’re correct about something. Maybe I actually managed to get you out of your.. slow phase in middle school.” he gestured to himself, sneaking a greasy wink at the end of his statement.

“Yah, what’d you say?!!”

Now, a student chasing a teacher down the street wasn’t a normal sight, but it sure seemed normal to the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys spring quarter = suffering quarter soz
> 
> anyways heres wonderwall


	21. AYAYAYAYAYAYAY 2NE1

“Good morning, Mr. Jung~”

“I got you a welcome gift!”

“Me too, me too!!”

“Don’t you remember my name, teacher?”

“I’ll get the top score on the next test so you can notice me~”

“No, I will! He’ll remember me first”

“No, me!!!”

“NO, M-"

Soobin could already hear the female students arguing as he neared the classroom. A part of him was mildly annoyed, since he was usually the first one in class on normal days.

But he didn’t care, as long as he could get to see his muse later.

Mr. Jung looked up in the midst of trying not to let all of his gifts fall to the floor, his eyes immediately lighting up.

“Yeonj- Yeonwoo!”

“Huh?” Soobin stopped walking, watching as his muse appeared from behind him and practically  _ SKIPPED _ over to their teacher.

It wasn’t a big deal, was it?

But he found it strange.

Mr. Jung had just come yesterday, how did him and Yeonwoo become so close so quickly?

And for the amount of time he had known Yeonwoo, he never expected her to be so perky and bubbly around other males, especially teachers.

“Good morning, Mr. Jung~!”

He definitely didn’t expect to hear her greet their teacher with the biggest smile on her face, either.

The crowd of girls that had previously surrounded their teacher had parted to make way for the newcomer, some looking extremely annoyed and others, simply confused.

“Did you finish your homework last night?”

Soobin watched as an expression of fear appeared on Yeonwoo’s face.

“Wh-What homework?”

Mr. Jung simply cracked a smile before darting into the classroom, but not before turning back and remarking, “Still can’t take a joke?”

“You can’t keep scaring me like this!!” she followed behind, wearing that infamous pout on her lips.

“A-Ah, Yeonwoo-“ Soobin tried calling out, before he was pushed aside by another wave of livid female students.

“Dude, you good?”

Ryujin came over, pulling him straight and dusting him off.

“Yeah, just-“

“-Mr. Jung’s new fan club is pretty intense. Best to avoid coming to class early while he’s here.”

“B-But!! It was my space first!” he sputtered, clutching his sketchbook to his chest.

“Do you want to get trampled again?”

“No.. but-“

“Just stick by me, I know some quiet places we could hang out at before class.” Ryujin reassured. “Only downside is you won’t be the first one to greet Yeonwoo in the classroom.”

“Then I’ll just make do with the situation.” he quickly responded, not knowing why he sounded so defensive just now. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“Well, aren’t you a manly man?” Ryujin teased, pinching her friend’s cheek. “I almost forgot, you knocked out Wooseok for your muse.. You should be good.”

The first sight Soobin saw when he entered the classroom was Yeonwoo standing way too close to Mr. Jung for his liking. They were pressed against each other, with Yeonwoo even putting a hand on the teacher’s shoulder as they both leaned in towards the laptop screen.

Soobin didn’t even realize that he was clenching his fist.

“Do you know about their relationship?” Ryujin asked, appearing behind him and watching the two laugh at something on the screen. “They were childhood friends.”

“They were??!”

“What I heard from Yeonwoo is that Mr. Jung just finished his undergraduate degree at Harvard and that he’s going to law school soon, but he wanted to come back to Korea to get some teaching credit or something before.” she explained, watching as the look in her friend’s eyes grew darker by the second. “He was really good friends with Yeonjun, and the three of them got along really well together.”

“Didn’t Yeonwoo study in America before coming here, though?” Soobin questioned, remembering what she had said on her very first day. “How did they even meet?”

Ryujin shrugged.

“You should ask her yourself if you’re that curious."

He could feel his fingernails digging into his skin as he watched the two converse, and how Mr. Jung even petted Yeonwoo  _ twice _ before she went back to her seat.

“‘Mornin, Soobin!”

The unusually perky greeting set him off, but nevertheless his anger immediately subsided due to the smile on his muse’s face.

It truly was his source of healing.

“Good morning, Yeonwoo!!”

Ryujin shook her head at her friend, watching as his annoyance turned into contentment in mere seconds.

What was she going to do with him?

 

 

\- - -

 

 

“So is she just not going to eat today either?” Ryujin asked asked five minutes before lunch period ended, using her fork to push around the leftover food on her tray. “It’s been a whole week since we’ve seen Yeonwoo at lunch.”

“Should I go find her?” Soobin half stood up from his seat, ready to dash out of the cafeteria. “Do you think she’s okay?”

For the past week, he had really been suppressing his need to just run and find his muse and tell her that everything he had done and would do was for her and that she wouldn’t regret being his and-

Ryujin gave him a look, one eyebrow raised.

“I think we all know where she is and who she’s with.”

“.....I’m just concerned for her. As a…” he swallowed. “...friend.”

“Sure.” Ryujin thrust her tray into his arms, immediately pulling out her phone. “Throw away my lunch tray for me before you go, will you?”

She had never seen anyone or anything run that fast in her life.

 

 

\- - -

 

 

There was already a small crowd around the classroom by the time he reached the second floor, which was quite surprising considering the speed at which he ran through the building. His glasses were crooked, and his hair even more messy than it usually was. He had almost tripped over his uniform pants several times, but he had made it.

“What the hell, I’m so jealous..”

“She already has the guys in our school, and now she gets the teacher too??”

“How did this happen already- it’s only been a few days since Mr. Jung has gotten here…?”

“Yeonwoo is one lucky bit-”

“Excuse me.”

The girls turned to their intruder, as Soobin managed to push himself to the front of the crowd so he had a clear view of what was exactly going on in the classroom.

“Who are you?”

He ignored similar questions and such as his heart sank lower and lower at the sight of Yeonwoo and Mr. Jung eating lunch together, from the same container, sitting much too close for his liking. Soobin watched as his muse picked up a sausage from the lunch box and held it up to the teacher’s mouth, turning away so he wouldn’t see the rest of the scene.

That feeling was back.

The sickly, simmering feeling at the bottom of his stomach.

Even though he was wearing his glasses, his vision became blurry, his thoughts jumbled.

Before his mind could stop his body, he found his hand reaching for the doorknob and swinging the door open.

Yeonjun immediately snapped his legs together at the sound, as opposed to the very relaxed, very  _ unladylike _ stance he was lounging around in.

Mr. Jung immediately stood up from his seat.

“Who said you could come in before lunch period was ov-!”

“Oh, Soobin.”

When his mind finally returned to Earth, Soobin could feel his ears heat up as he realized he had just barged into what he otherwise would have assumed was a date, along with the crowd of female students trying to hide the fact that they had been spying from outside the door.

“O-Oh, Mr. Jung…..” he stuttered. “I just…… had to ask you about… that one chapter in the book about… old-age Bronze…. Korean pottery.”

Ugh, you  _ idiot _ .

Mr. Jung rubbed his eyes, now aware of the unexpected audience he had gathered.

The school bell didn’t help with his headache.

“You do realize that you could always email me these questions, Soobin?”

“Oh…. right. S-Sorry, Mr. Jung.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Soobin spotted Yeonwoo getting out of her seat to throw the rest of the contents of her lunch box out.

“I can get that for you, my princess!!”

 

Silence.

 

“Princess…?”

“Who even is this kid?”

“It’s the 21st century……”

Yeonjun, realizing exactly what the nerd had called him, had all the memories of that night rush back to him at once, and all the blood in his body rush to his face at once.

_ Princess…..? _

Soobin quickly dumped the leftovers in the trash bin, turning back to a very pink Yeonwoo.

He couldn’t even open his mouth before she grabbed him by the tie and pulled him out of the classroom, not stopping until they were in a small hallway far away enough from the crowd.

“Soobin.”

“Y-Yes, Yeonwoo?”

“I thought we agreed that we would just stay f-”

“Friends!! Yeah, friends!! Just pal-to-pal, buddy-buddy!” Soobin nodded, forcing a smile. “That’s what I’m doing…! I just wanted to check on you because you haven’t eaten lunch with Ryujin and I for a while and we didn’t know where you were so that’s why I came today and oh my god I’m blabbering again-”

“Soobin.”

He immediately shut up.

“Friends don’t call friends ‘princess’.”

 

Ah.

 

“..S-Sorry, it just slipped.” he looked down at his shoes.

“Hey, look at me.” Yeonjun tilted his face up with his thumb. “Look, this whole waiting thing is completely up to you. If you want to go out and find someone else while I’m still trying to figure everything out, I can’t complain. In fact, I… encourage it..!”

 

The last part was a little harder to say..

 

‘Like I can even get anyone even if I tried…’ Soobin thought.

“Don’t let me stop you from being happy. If anything, this is my fau-”

“No!!!”

Yeonjun was taken aback, especially the part where the nerd suddenly grabbed his hands.

“Soobin..”

“Nothing is your fault! I’ll try my best to find happiness while you make your choice! For you.”

The same dizzy feeling was back, the blush that was just starting to fade came rushing back.

Was it wrong that his hands felt so right when they were in Soobin’s?

“Be happy.” he reminded him, hesitantly slipping out of the hallway and away from the artist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooo the plot thiccens


	22. tuwuenty tuwu

“Grandpa.”

“Hello? Earth to Soobin.”

“Soobin.”

“Soobs.”

“Dude…”

“...Yeonwoo’s Future Husband, are you home?”

“Huh?”

“I like how that’s the one you respond to.” Ryujin snickered, looping her arm through her friend’s. Noticing the more-blank-than-usual expression on his face, she grabbed his face and squeezed it, forcing him to turn towards her. “What’s wrong, champ?”

“It’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“You’re absolutely, positively, completely, totally sure?”

“Yep.”

“Yeonwoo wants you to attempt to move on, right?”

“..........How the hell did you-”

She held a finger over his lips.

“Shhhh. I know stuff.”

“Ryujin, what am I going to do?” Soobin finally broke his stoic facade, his full-on puppy frown exposed to the world. “I was lucky enough for the world to even give me a chance to talk to Yeonwoo, how am I supposed to find someone else to distract myself with?”

“Soobin, you’re adorable.”

“Don’t you like girls?”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t count as a female, excuse you.”

“Sorry.”

Ryujin stepped in front of the taller, stretching her arms out so she could try and block as much of his pathway as she could.

“Soobin, all you need is confidence.” she continued. “You literally have everything that all those girls wèare looking for- body, height, intelligence, talent- it just… needs to be refined a bit, that’s all.”

“B-But… I don’t want those other girls.. I just want Yeonwoo.” he pouted. At this point, he didn’t even care if he sounded childish or not.

What an adorable idiot of a friend Ryujin had.

“Even if you don’t want the other girls, you could think that changing something up will possibly grab Yeonwoo’s attention.” she pitched the idea. “Not that she’s the type to only go for looks, but a little smidge of jealousy won’t hurt, right?”

“Jealousy? I don’t know…..” he didn’t like the idea of using other girls as pawns in his pursuit for his muse, but what other options did he have left besides forever hiding behind his huge uniform and glasses? He had been meaning to get a uniform that fit him and a proper haircut.. for the past two years, after all.

“Choi Soobin.” Ryujin grabbed his face by the cheeks and leaned in. “I am going to make you  _ the most _ desirable male specimen this weekend even if I die doing it.”

 

 

\- - -

 

 

The first thing that Hoseok had done after he had stepped into the Choi residence was scoop Lia up in a hug so tight that made Yeonjun worry if his sister was about to snap in half.

“You grew up so well, Lia!!” Hoseok cooed, finally setting the smaller down. “Last time I saw you, you were barely up to my chest, and now you’re……. still barely up to my chest!”

“Heh, midget.” Yeonjun chuckled under his breath.

“Says the boy in the skirt and wig.” Lia shot back.

“...Shut up.”

“I can see where ‘Yeonwoo’ got her beauty from.” Hoseok added on, wiggling his eyebrows at the boy.

Lia let out a snort before grabbing Yeonjun by his cheeks and pulling him down.

“Right, isn’t my big  _ sis _ adorable~?”

“SHUT UP.” he swatted away Lia’s hand, reaching up and pulling his wig off while storming off in the direction of his room. “That’s enough Yeonwoo for today.”

And the very first thing that Hoseok said to Lia as soon as the door to Yeonjun’s room slammed shut..

“You did a-”

“Great job with him? I know, I’m a genius.” Lia scoffed, flipping her ponytail.

“From the rumors I’ve heard, I know that Yeonjun is extremely popular with the ladies at school.” Hoseok continued, kicking his shoes off and loosening his tie. “Who was the girl that managed to get him into this… situation?”

“Right.. because it has to be a girl.” Lia muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” she smiled sweetly at the elder, getting up from the couch and heading towards the kitchen. “Would you like some snacks? There’s some leftover cookies Yeonjun baked the other day.”

“Since when did Yeonjun bake?” Hoseok slid over to the kitchen, stuffing two cookies into his mouth. “He couldn’t even boil water before.”

“He actually does most of the cleaning and cooking here, that neat freak.” Lia put her hand to her chest. “I’m ever so grateful for a dear brother like mine.”

“Wow, he really became something after I left….” Hoseok wondered aloud. “Wait, but how did he get into the whole ‘Yeonwoo’ situation again?”

“So, it started with this girl Ryujin that he was madly in love with, and this crazy plan with coming to school as a girl and befriending her was working a little at first, but the little detail that he didn’t take into account was that she likes GIRLS, so he started getting in over his head, thinking that he could somehow change her sexuality, but personally I think he started enjoying the attention he got from those hella thirsty guys at school, but the thing is he also started getting really close to one of Ryujin’s friends, and this guy is the biggest art hoe I’ve ever met but he’s actually pretty cute if you look at him closely, but Yeonjun has been spending a lot of time with him and he even gave him a ki-”

“Ugh, why is eyeliner always such a bitch to remove?” Yeonjun came into the kitchen, dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants, his short hair a fluffy mess and black shadows under his eyes.

“I finally get to see the real Yeonjun after all these years!” Hoseok feigned surprise, before grabbing Yeonjun and giving him a noogie, messing up his hair even more.

“I’ve literally been with you for almost two weeks and you just noogie me now?”

“It felt wrong to noogie Yeonwoo, she’d claw my eyes out if I tried to anyway.”

“You’re right.” Yeonjun agreed, grabbing one of his own cookies out of the box.

Lia looked between the two men, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. Even though she was rooting for Yeonwoo x Art Hoe, it’d be amusing to see what her brother would do after so many years after seeing his first love.

“Well, I’ll leave you two boys to it. The console is already plugged into the TV, I’ll be in my room watching dramas if you need me~!” she waved them off, the door to her room already closing by the time she finished her sentence.

“Weird, she never voluntarily sets up my games for me.” Yeonjun thought aloud. “Did they have Bloodbashers back in the U.S.?”

“I haven’t played that since the original came out….” Hoseok gasped. “What series are they on now?”

“I only have up till the third here.” he rummaged through the neat stack of games against the wall. “But I know the fifth one is out and I’ve seen a prototype of the sixth.”

“Where the hell did you manage to see a prototype??!”

Oh yeah…

..that night.

The words he had spoke into the dead of night, and the warmth of his chest….

He told himself to stop thinking about it multiple times, but it would always come back to haunt him.

“...Yeonjun? Helloooooo?”

He snapped back to reality when Hoseok waved his hand in front of his face.

“Sorry!!” he apologied, throwing a controller into the elder’s hands and settling into the couch, adding an unnatural cough. “Uhh… let’s just say I won’t be able to get it any time soon, so let’s just play through what we have!”

“Hm.. okay.” Hoseok raised an eyebrow, immediately distracted by the flashing levels on the screen. “YOU NEVER MADE IT PAST LEVEL 17??!! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING??”

“I CAN’T GET PAST THE BOSS WITH THE WEAPONS AND POINTS THAT I HAVE NOW!!” he yelled back, wrapping himself in the couch blanket and pushing his bottom lip out. “And what do you know about the third volume, you said you never played anything past the original!!”

“Gaming Youtubers are huge thing in America- don’t tell me you thought I just  _ studied _ all the time.” Hoseok scoffed, pulling part of the blanket over himself and brushing himself against the younger. After clearly looking over him in his raw state, the nostalgia of the little boy that always followed him around shouting “Hobi hyung” came flooding back. He remembered when he would always have to hold his hand to prevent the clumsy younger Yeonjun from running into  _ anything _ pretty much, or when Yeonjun would gift him little trinkets he would find around his neighborhood, like a pretty rock or a flower he would somehow find in the middle of winter. He had always wondered how he would grow up, and seeing two completely different images of him in two weeks was in the least, amusing. There was the very obviously boyish Yeonjun in front of him now, that still bickered with him just as much as he did several years ago but still kept the habits that Hoseok loved, including cleaning up behind himself every five minutes and cutely hiding his face behind a blanket when he was about to lose an argument. Then there was the very random, very mysterious, and surprisingly pretty ‘Yeonwoo’ whom he still had a plethora of questions to ask about.

“So, Yeonjun.” he began, easily surpassing the level as the younger looked on in horror. “How did this Yeonwoo thing happen again?”

“Oh.. so you wanna know about that…” Yeonjun nodded, wrapping himself even tighter with the blanket and grabbing a pillow from beside him. “How much do you wanna know?”

“Well if I’m going to be helping you keep your identity under wraps, I need to know a good amount.”

“Right….”

“C’mon, Junnie, even though we haven’t seen each other in a while, I’m still your big brother!” Hoseok put a hand on the younger’s shoulder, feeling a slight flinch under him. “So c’mon, tell me about what gorgeous gal you’re pulling all of this for!!”

Right… gal…

“Well…. you know Ryujin Shin? In our class…?”

“Awwwww, that’s so cute, you like your classmate!!” Hoseok gushed, rubbing Yeonjun’s hair again. “And so? Did she terribly reject you or something? How did you end up in a skirt?”

“So… what happened was that I was set up by a bunch of people that.. don’t like me that much?”

There was someone who didn’t like Yeonjun? Growing up, all Hoseok knew was that everyone loved him because he was such a sweet kid.

“What did you do?”

Yeonjun scratched the back of his head, letting out an awkward laugh.

“Let’s just say.. sometimes I get involved in people I shouldn’t get involved with…” he admitted, wincing at Hoseok’s disapproving look. “I know, I know!! I should’ve made better decisions!! But because of the set up, Ryujin had the worst impression of me and I couldn’t go back, so Lia suggested this giant plan to come to school as ‘Yeonwoo’ so I could fix my reputation and my relationship with Ryujin.”

“So Yeonwoo is to appeal to her sexual preference.”

“Well, no, not really, I- …… wait, how did you know she likes girls??”

Hoseok laughed, while easily passing the next level.

“Lia is a very valuable source of information.”

‘GODDAMMIT Lia!!’

“So how is this plan progressing so far then?” Hoseok pressed on, curious to hear more details from the ringmaster himself.

‘There is no progress.’

‘She only sees me as a friend.’

‘And who knows what she thinks of Yeonjun??!’

“Um.. pretty good. I’ve been talking to her a lot more than I would have as.. myself.”

“Okay, let’s go progress!!” Hoseok pumped his fist, for both Yeonjun’s update and for passing the next level.

“I’ve met a lot of her friends too.”

“Oh? Like who?” Hoseok pressed on, taking advantage of how focused Yeonjun was on the game. There was a rising suspicion within him, but he wanted to hear from the younger himself.

“She has a really good friend named Soobin.” he started.

“How is he?”

“At first I thought he was really weird, but as I started to get to know him, there’s a lot to him that a lot of people don’t see.”

“Oh? Like?”

“He’s extremely talented, first of all. I literally can’t tell his drawings apart from the real thing, and he even won the regional art show and is moving on to the semi-finals soon. Not to mention the paintings he’s done are some of most beautiful works of art I’ve seen, like ever.” Yeonjun explained, his eyes not leaving the TV screen.

“Really, now?”

“His personality was a little awkward at first, but once you get to know him, he’s like a giant teddy bear, y’know?”

“Oh, how so?”

“He’ll take my books and my bags even if I really don’t need him to, and he’ll do this extremely cute thing where he’ll shake his head so much that his glasses fall off his nose and they way his glasses sit on his face all crooked along with his noodle-looking hair and his squishy cheeks is just so adorable for some reason- not to mention that even though I thought he’d be really weak, there’s something underneath the cute awkwardness that’s just so… strong, but also really gentle, and his hugs are the best because they make me feel so safe and I usually HATE being the smaller one but I don’t know, there’s something about him that makes me just want to hold his hand forever and lean my head against his shoulder and just wrap my arms around him and close my eyes and ki……”

Hoseok had put his controller down and was now looking at Yeonjun with a knowing smile.

‘Holy shit, I just outed myself to my first crush.’

A good ten seconds of silence between them, only the sounds of Yeonjun’s character being defeated in the video game serving as background noise.

“So I’m guessing Soobin is the one that called you ‘princess’ today, right?”

“WE DON’T TALK ABOUT THAT!!!” Yeonjun immediately turned off the TV, throwing down his controller and hiding himself under the blanket and hoping his blush wouldn’t show.

Spoiler: It did. Hella.

Hoseok let out a sigh, and gently pulled the blanket down, revealing a very pink, teary-eyed Yeonjun.

“God, you’re still as soft as you were when you were little- I didn’t know the infamous Golden Hyung cried over love.” he remarked, using the nickname he had heard around the school.

“I’M NOT SOFT!”

“You sure?”

“........I’m not soft…” he repeated, using the blanket to wipe his eyes.

“Even though you’ve done stuff and gotten involved with people you shouldn’t have,” Hoseok leaned in towards the younger so that their faces were only centimeters apart. “I know you’re still the same little Junnie you were when you used to have a crush on me.”

Wait, what?

“H-How did you-??!”

“Your face is pink again, Junnie.”

He pressed his hands against his cheeks, his mind attempting to control his bodily actions.

‘Fuck…….’

“I thought you liked-”

“Girls? I go either way.” Hoseok shrugged, admitting the fact like it was nothing. “You really don’t need to hide if you like boys- especially doing that through sleeping with every other girl you see.”

“So it’s not weird… for you?” Yeonjun asked, hugging his knees against his chest.

“Of course not! Everyone has a first love, and it shouldn’t matter if it’s the same gender or not.” Hoseok put down his controller, looking straight into the younger’s eyes.

“But I’m not g-g….”

“Look, you don’t have to come out to me now.”

‘Too late……’

“But I can tell, just from the way you talk about him, that you really do like Soobin.” Hoseok smiled. “I’m just happy you’re happy.”

“He doesn’t like me, he likes  _ Yeonwoo _ .” Yeonjun corrected. “Pretty, popular, ‘female’ Yeonwoo.”

The elder watched as Yeonjun sulked, with a longing, faraway look in his eyes. He hadn’t seen that look for the past few weeks- the same expression that he had last seen as he drove away for the airport five years ago.

He decided then and there that he wanted him to be happy, to have someone that wouldn’t leave him.

“Here’s the thing.” he started, slinging his arm over the younger’s shoulders. “If he really does like you- love you, even- he’ll forgive you. I mean, if your relationship progresses, eventually the truth is going to come out, and it’s better if he finds out from you than from somebody else.”

“....I guess.”

“You’re not planning to stay as Yeonwoo forever, right?”

“Definitely not.” Yeonjun shook his head. “I can’t stand wearing a skirt for six hours a day, nevertheless waking up just to do makeup every single day until god knows when.”

“Then feel it out, and when you think it feels right, tell him.” Hoseok declared. “And if he rejects you or reacts unreasonably, then you know he’s not the one for you.”

For a quick second, Yeonjun thought about what it would be like if he decided to keep this gender game up. Would he make it till graduation? Would it continue through college? Would he have to forge legal documents afterwards so the authorities would-

 

Okay.

He was definitely overthinking.

 

But what if he actually told him? Would he be angry? Confused? ….Disgusted?

He didn’t want to think about it but he couldn’t stop.

“Sometimes you can put your own happiness before someone else’s.” Hoseok ran his fingers through Yeonjun’s hair, forcing the younger to look up at him with his puppy-like expression. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

Looks like he would make his choice sooner than he thought.


	23. TWENTY TREE???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sup im alive lmao
> 
> waiting for txtiddy's comeback tho where is it??????????????????  
> my team's blue orangeade cover hit 25k tho ayyyyyyy its good enough :')

His shirt was too hot, pants too tight, and hair too itchy.

If this was how it was going to be from now on, he would much rather look like how he did before.

Especially with the fact that he could barely recognize his reflection in the full-length mirror when he turned around.

“Holy-”

“What? Do the clothes not fit? Do you need a smaller size?” he could Ryujin inquire from outside, probably with another huge pile of clothes for him to try on.

“It’s not that….” he muttered under his breath, his finger tugging at the collar of his shirt. “Why am I layering these shirts so much? Isn’t it too hot for that?”

“Soobin, it’s called fashion. Not that you would know, anyway.”

“Ryujin, shut-”

“Come out, though!!! I want to see if my hard work paid off!”

“By hard work, do you mean my card?”

“Soobin.”

“Ugh, fine.”

Ryujin let out an audible gasp as her friend stepped out of the dressing room, quickly covering her mouth as her eyes pored over her formerly nerdy-looking friend.

A simple grey sweater over a white button-up and slim beige pants highlighted his tall stature, making him actually look like his true height. His hair was dyed and styled like he had just woke up and immediately made his way to a runway show. His wire-rim glasses were gone, with natural colored contacts showing off a gaze that even Ryujin wasn’t expecting from him.

He looked like he was a model himself rather than the artist that sketched one.

“Soobin……… who are you?”

He fiddled with his sweater, running his hands over the material.

“This is actually... pretty comfortable?”

Ryujin grabbed him by the cheeks, forcing his head up.

God damn, he was good looking.

Probably one of the best looking guys she’d ever seen.

“Soobin, you look like every girl's dream boyfriend.”

“....H-Huh?” he blinked, not sure how to take the very straightforward compliment. He wasn’t going to deny that he looked a lot more…. refined than usual, but it was weird to think that he himself, could be conventionally attractive (or whatever Ryujin meant by “dream boy”).

“So I got you a uniform that actually fits.” she threw a plastic bag to his feet. “As for your hair, just remember what the hairstylist told you to do and make sure to use BOTH the hair and skin products I bought for you!”

“Again, it was with my card-”

“ANYWAYS, you better prepare your little ass for tomorrow because the entire school is about go crazy over the new art hoe.” she pushed him to the large circle of mirrors in front of them, putting her hand on his shoulder and admiring her work. “If Yeonwoo isn’t shaking in her skirt tomorrow, I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

With a sigh and one last look at his unrecognizable reflection, he headed back into the dressing room.

‘Yeonwoo, I don’t know what else to do if this doesn’t work…’

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

“How was your little date last night with Hobi~?” was the first question Lia asked her brother as soon as they started walking to school.

“It wasn’t a date, I don’t know how much I have to emphasize that!!” he protested, pressing his lips together. “All we did was play the game.”

“I heard you cried.”

“..No.”

“Aww, Junnie....” Lia mockingly pouted. “Was it about Soobin~?”

The name itself immediately brought him back to the entire conversation he had with Hoseok about starting to think about how he was going to tell Soobin the big secret.

No.

It was way too early.

“No, and I would appreciate if you wouldn’t listen on our conversations anymore, thanks.” he picked up his walking speed, passing through the school gates and doors a good ten meters ahead of his sister.

“I’m only trying to get enough information so I can help you through this tough time!” Lia shouted after him, speed-walking to catch up. “Curse you and your long ass legs.”

“You jealous?” he snickered, giving her a smug look. “You can’t get any guys yourself so you’re living vicariously through me?”

“There’s a difference between not being able to get guys and not wanting to be with someone right now, idiot.” she rolled her eyes at the lie, her hand itching to flip up his skirt again. But she wouldn’t, considering the fact that they could catch the attention of a teacher passing by in the hallways.

Also there was a weird commotion behind the two of them, one that they hadn’t seen since Yeonwoo’s first day.

“Is there an event for something today? Why is everyone so noisy?” Yeonjun stopped by a bulletin board, perusing for any poster that would give a reason as to why everyone was stirring something up so early in the morning.

“It might be Wooseok and his goons?” Lia suggested. “That would explain why the amount of girls lined up.”

“But… Wooseok’s right there.” Yeonjun nodded towards the opposite end of the hallway before turning back to the board, with Wooseok looking just as confused as everyone else. “I mean, there’s a sporting event today, but that’s not till twelve..”

“Uh, Yeonjun?”

“Hm?”

“I think you should-”

“Good morning, Yeonwoo!”

Oh, it was just Soobin.

“Good morning, S- oh.”

‘Oh’ was right.

The same clump of students he and Lia had seen behind them was actually surrounding the artist, with guys squinting their eyes to make out who exactly this “new” kid was and the girls whispering amongst themselves in excitement. Ryujin was there too, watching from the side like a proud mother so that her new creation could work the charms she drilled into him.

Yeonjun scanned the artist head to toe, taking in the newly fitted uniform and fixed posture that actually made him look like the true height he was, as well as his usual paint-splattered backpack slung over one shoulder.

And he thought he pulled off the uniform best before Yeonwoo was a thing.

This was probably the first time he properly saw the nerd’s face in all of its glory, with his formerly unruly hair straightened and combed neatly showing off the face the gave Yeonjun both dreams and nightmares. With his sharp features, intense gaze, and the most innocent, unknowing smile, it was like he was shining with confidence.

It was the first time in a while he got that fuzzy feeling just by looking at someone.

“Yeonwoo?”

Before he could realize what was happening, he felt his knees buckle and frantically tried to grab whatever was behind him to stabilize his stance.

“Ow!” his knuckle slammed straight into a push pin on one of the flyers, immediately making his hand retract and snapping him out of his fantasy. “Idiot!” he cursed under breath.

“Yeonwoo, are you okay? Your face is awfully red.” Soobin took his muse’s hand in his, his thumb rubbing over the injured area. “It’s just a little scratch, thank goodness.”

Meanwhile, the pain dulled in a matter of seconds for Yeonjun, because he was pulled right back into the trance.

“Y-You look….. different, Soobin.” he blurted out.

‘Yeah, no shit.’

All the artist did was let out an awkward chuckle, flashing another killer smile that made Yeonjun’s life flash before his eyes.

“Is it a good different or bad different?”

He tripped over nothing for the second time that day.

Not before he was caught, his waist held by Soobin’s other arm.

He had been these situations before, where he had to catch some girl that swooned over him in order to further work his charms on her. But he never thought he would be the one doing the swooning and stuttering- especially in some other guy’s arms. In front of the entire student population.

“D-Definitely…...” he gulped, pressing his lips together. “Good.”

“You really think so?!” Soobin’s face lit up at the affirmation. “What a relief, I was a bit worried-”

His mind was already drowning out what he was saying, as he swore he could only hear his heart threatening to pop out of his chest and the blood rushing to his face all at once. There was no way he could function in this condition.

What the hell, Soobin?

Who said you could do this?

“-we should get you a bandaid or something before class, right?” was the last sentence he heard, watching as Soobin continued to inspect his wound.

“Uhhhh… i-it doesn’t hurt that much…”

“It doesn’t seem to be bleeding either, it’s just kind of red..” the artist concluded. “Okay, if it’s not that major, this should suffice for now!”

Oblivious to everyone watching them, he brought his muse’s hand up to his mouth and placed a kiss on her knuckle, wearing that same innocent smile that he had since day one.

The collective gasp from the crowd behind them was joined by a small “Oh my god” from Lia and Ryujin.

 

Oh my god was right.


	24. tuwuenty FOR?????

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im alive
> 
> this is short but im also working on something new !!!J!JLKJK!sjdfklsa jfkl;

Yeonjun put all of his weight on the bathroom sink, grasping the sides of the porcelain and putting his extremely hot face down so he wouldn’t have to see how much of a tomato he was.

Out of all things to surprise him, he never expected it to be nerdy, awkward Soobin walking in looking like an entire snack.

He had retired to the bathroom only a few moments after Soobin had literally kissed his hand as if he was some damsel from a fairytale but was quickly taken away by a crowd of new followers begging for his number.

“Honestly, what the HELL happened?” he muttered to himself, wishing he could splash water on his face to help the temperature go down.

‘Not sure if this is going to make my decision easier or harder….’

After his talk with Hoseok, he decided that he would give himself two more weeks to finally decide between finally making his final and most important move on Ryujin, or to let himself fall for Soobin whilst using a false identity.

Both options had good and terrible endings.

The only thing that was flashing through his mind that morning though, was the fact that he could now clearly see just how perfectly structured Soobin’s face was, and just how badly he needed to see it again.

“How can he be even better looking than before……?” Yeonjun half-whined aloud, looking up at his reflection with a pout on his lips and internally cursing at himself immediately.

‘Now all of the other pretty girls are gonna try and go for him…’

No.

Why was he thinking like this ALREADY?

Why was he thinking like a _LOSER_ already?

“Choi Yeonjun, you need to get your fucking shit together, you hear me?” he pointed to the mirror, part of him not being able to take his pouty pink lips and sweater paws seriously. “You’re not gonna lose that stupid nerd to some rando, okay?”

“That’s right, I’m better looking than half the skanks here.” he brushed his bangs aside and puffed out his chest, feeling a weird sense of pride towards his fake persona. “Not to mention I’m not even an actual gi-!”

“Yeonwoo?”

He whipped his head around when he saw the clearly male reflections in the mirror, looking straight at the students that just walked into the bathroom.

Oh shit.

It was his squad.

He had been so caught up in the events of the past few weeks that he hadn’t bothered to check up how his group was doing.

_ Man _ , he was a shit friend..

“........Hi?”

“Um… what brings you here?” Woojin asked, his ears tinted red already. “Shouldn’t you be-?”

“Am I not allowed to use the bathroom like a normal student?” Yeonjun replied, raising an eyebrow and putting a hand on his hip.

“Yeah, but-”

“-But what?”

“This is the boy’s bathroom.”

..Motherfu-

“Oh. The girl’s bathroom was um….. full!” he quickly smoothed down his skirt, ready to weasle himself out of another stupid situation he got himself into. “I just needed to... powder my nose really quickly before class~!”

“Don’t worry, it’s cool!” Jihoon shook his head, wearing his dumb smile. “If you’re related to Jun I’m sure you’re chill.”

Related. Ha.

“I’ll get out of your hair now, though!!” he quickly brushed past the wall of male students, praying he could make it out without encountering Wooseok or one of those gym pigs.

“You’re always welcome here, cutie-” Lucas’ hand reached out and barely brushed against the small of Yeonjun’s back before he was pressed against the wall with his hand twisted behind him in mere seconds.

“Try that again, and you won’t get to keep your hand.” Yeonjun lowered his voice and hissed into his ear.

Lucas, Woojin, Mark, Jihoon all looked on in shock. Realizing this, he released Yeonjun from his grip and cleared his throat.

“I  _ proooooobably~ _ won’t be back anytime soon but I would appreciate it if you guys kept my mistake on the down low, I’m  _ suuuuuper _ embarrassed..” he had managed to perfect dragging out certain words just enough so that he would have any poor guy wrapped around his finger in the past few weeks. He felt somewhat guilty for playing his part so  _ well _ , clasping his hands together, pushing out his bottom lip and batting his eyelashes at Woojin just a little more.

“ _ Please? _ ”

Woojin walked out of the bathroom a little more red and his heart beating a little faster than when he walked in.

“Damn dude, you’re whipped.” Jihoon teased, slapping him on the back.

So much for finding someone better..

 

 

\- - -

 

 

“Soobin oppa, what do you like to do for fun?”

“Someone as handsome as you must do sports? Or play an instrument?”

“Honestly his face alone is a talent…”

“C’mon oppa, tell us~~”

Although Soobin seemed quite content with the situation he was in, wearing a small smile on his face whilst a hoard of female students surrounded his desk, he was actually freaking out.

‘ _ I’ve literally never had this many people talking to me at once. _ ’

“I’m actually President of the Art Club here.” he finally spoke, with no stutters or pauses.

“Oh my god, oppa, you draw?!”

“That’s so fitting!!”

“Can I join? Teach me how to art, Soobinnie~!”

“Oppa, can we see some of your drawings?”

He froze.

The last few sketches he had were of..

“The art rooms downstairs, you’ll be able to see some of my work so stop by anytime you like!” he quickly said, flashing a smile to the group.

As if the universe wanted to spite him, Hoseok sauntered into the classroom. However, his attention was diverted when his muse entered right after, already preoccupied with some conversation with him.

The group of girls around him continued to coo about him and his face (whatever about it they were so enamored by, he was oblivious), but his eyes were glued to how engaged his muse was to her conversation with their teacher. Wide eyes, rosy cheeks, and how she seemed to hang onto every single word he said- did she ever do that with him?

Yeonjun was caught up in his conversation with Hoseok about the latest updates on the game they played over the weekend, but he couldn’t help but glance over at the unusually large group of female students around Soobin’s desk.

“Junnie, your eyebrow is twitching.” Hoseok quietly pointed out with a teasing smirk.

“Shoot…” his hand flew up to his face.

“I see you haven’t made your decision yet.”

“Two weeks.” Yeonjun answered. “I’m giving myself two weeks to see what I have to do.”

“Wow, look how grown-up and mature you are, giving yourself deadlines!” Hoseok teased, taking out his laptop.

Yeonju scoffed as he turned away and started walking back to his seat, where all he had to do was give the girls a single look in order to clear a path for him.

There was one girl who lingered for a little longer though, and Soobin actually seemed pretty invested in their conversation.

“You’ve actually worked in a Yayoi Kusama exhibition? No way!!” he heard Soobin ask, excitement prevalent in his voice.

“Mm hm! I was one of the tour guides and helped set up and everything through the community art center when I was in Taiwan last summer.”

Even from the corner of his eye, Yeonjun could tell she was the type of girl that every guy would consider the “first love” type- tall, thin, long hair and a kind face. When he saw the sketchbook she was holding in her arms, his heart sank.

“Definitely come by the club sometime then! We could organize a field trip or something like that… if you’re down?” Soobin asked hesitantly, not sure if he was coming on too strong.

“Okay! I’ve been meaning to anyway!” the girl spoke softly, even giving Yeonjun a tiny glance and smile before walking back to her seat.

He didn’t even have time to respond before she left, leaving him to sit there and try his hardest to not look at the artist right next to him.

“A-A lot of people interested in the club now, huh?” he got out, cursing himself for the slight stutter.

“Yeah, I’m really happy!” Soobin answered, wearing one of the biggest smiles Yeonjun had ever seen.

One that made him want to just say “fuck it” and throw his arms around him.

But he couldn’t.

Not now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeonwoo is aware of her power and she'll use it whenever she sees fit
> 
> my gf yeonwoo yall


End file.
